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IMAGE  EVALUATION 
TEST  TARGET  (MT-S) 


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Photographic 

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23  WEST  MAIN  STREET 

WEBSTER,  N.Y.  M580 

(716)  872-4503 


0^ 


CIHM/ICMH 

Microfiche 

Series. 


CIHM/ICIVIH 
Collection  de 
microfiches. 


Canadian  Institute  for  Historical  Microreproductions  /  Institut  Canadian  de  microreproductions  historiques 


Technical  and  Bibliographic  Notes/Notes  techniques  et  bibliographiques 


T 
t( 


The  Institute  has  attempted  to  obtain  the  best 
original  copy  available  for  filming.  Features  of  this 
copy  which  may  be  bibliographically  unique, 
which  may  alter  any  of  the  images  in  the 
reproduction,  or  which  may  significantly  change 
the  usual  method  of  filming,  are  checked  below. 


□    Coloured  covers/ 
Couverture  do  couleur 


I      I    Covers  damaged/ 


D 


D 
D 


D 
D 


D 


0 


Couverture  endommagte 


Covers  restored  and/or  laminated/ 
Couverture  restaur^  et/ou  pelliculAe 


□    Cover  title  missing/ 
Le 


titre  de  couverture  manque 


Coloured  maps/ 

Cartes  gtegraphiquos  en  couleur 


Coloured  ink  (i.e.  other  than  blue  or  black)/ 
Encre  de  couleur  (i.e.  autre  que  bleue  ou  noire) 


I      I    Coloured  plates  and/or  illustrations/ 


Planches  et/ou  illustrations  en  couleur 


Bound  with  other  material/ 
Relii  avec  d'sutres  documents 


Tight  binding  may  cause  shadows  or  distortion 
along  interior  margin/ 

La  re  liure  serrAe  peut  causer  de  I'ombre  ou  de  la 
distorsion  to  long  de  la  marge  int^rieure 

Blank  leaves  added  during  restoration  may 
appear  within  the  text.  Whenever  possible,  these 
have  been  omitted  from  filming/ 
II  se  peut  que  certaines  pages  blanches  ajoutAes 
lors  d'une  restauration  apparaissent  dans  le  texte. 
mais,  lorsque  cela  ttait  possible,  cos  pages  n'ont 
pas  AtA  fllmies. 


Additional  comments:/ 
Commentaires  supplimentaires: 


Various  pagings. 


L'Institut  a  microfilm^  la  meilleur  exemplaire 
qu'il  lui  a  iti  possible  de  se  procurer.  Les  details 
de  cet  exemplaire  qui  sont  peut-Atre  uniques  du 
point  de  vue  bibliographique,  qui  peuvent  modifier 
une  image  reproduite,  ou  qui  peuvent  exiger  une 
modification  dans  la  methods  normale  de  filmage 
sont  indiquis  ci-dessous. 


[~*~|    Coloured  pages/ 


D 


Pages  de  couleur 

Pages  damaged/ 
Pages  endommagies 


□    Pages  restored  and/or  laminated/ 
Pages  restauries  et/ou  pelliculies 

r~T|    Pages  discoloured,  stained  or  foxeu.' 
biJ    Pages  dicoiories,  tacheties  ou  piquies 

□Pages  detached/ 
Pages  ddtachies 

Showthroughy 
Transparence 

Quality  of  prir 

Qualiti  inigale  de  I'impression 

includes  supplementary  materii 
Comprend  du  materiel  supplimentaire 

Only  edition  available/ 
Seule  Edition  disponible 


T 
P 

0 

f 


C 

b 

tl 

8 
O 
f 

s 

0 


rri  Showthrough/ 

I      I  Quality  of  print  varies/ 

I      I  includes  supplementary  material/ 

r~~|  Only  edition  available/ 


7 
s 

^ 

d 

e 
b 
ri 
rj 
n 


Pages  wholly  or  partially  obscured  by  errata 
slips,  tissues,  etc.,  have  been  refilmed  to 
ensure  the  best  possible  image/ 
Les  pages  totalement  ou  partiellement 
obscurcies  par  un  feuillet  d'errata,  une  pelure, 
etc.,  ont  M  filmies  A  nouveau  de  fapon  d 
obtenir  la  meilleure  image  possible. 


This  item  is  filmed  at  the  reduction  ratio  checked  below/ 

Ce  document  est  film*  au  taux  de  rMuction  indiquA  ci-dessous. 


10X 

14X 

18X 

22X 

26X 

30X 

7 

12X 


16X 


20X 


24X 


28X 


32X 


The  copy  filmed  here  hes  been  reproduced  thanks 
to  the  generosity  of: 

Mills  Memorial  Library 
McMaiter  University 


L'exemplaire  filmt  fut  reprodult  grAce  A  la 
g^ntrositt  de: 

Mills  Memorial  Library 
McMaster  University 


The  images  appearing  here  are  the  best  quality 
possible  considering  the  condition  end  legibility 
of  the  original  copy  and  in  Iteeping  with  the 
filming  contract  specifications. 


Les  images  suivantes  ont  tti  reproduites  avec  le 
plus  grand  soin,  compte  tenu  de  la  condition  et 
de  la  nettet6  de  rexemplaire  f llmA,  et  en 
conformity  avec  les  conditions  du  contrat  de 
filmage. 


Original  copies  in  printed  paper  covers  are  filmed 
beginning  with  the  front  cover  and  ending  on 
the  last  page  with  a  printed  or  illustrated  impres- 
sion, or  the  bacic  cover  when  appropriate.  All 
other  original  copies  are  filmed  beginning  on  the 
first  page  with  a  printed  or  illustrated  impres- 
sion, and  ending  on  the  last  page  with  a  printed 
or  illustrated  impression. 


Les  exempleires  originaux  dont  la  couverture  en 
papier  est  imprlmte  sent  filmte  en  commenpant 
par  le  premier  plat  et  en  terminant  soit  par  la 
dernlAre  page  qui  comporte  une  emprelnte 
d'impression  ou  d'illustratlon,  solt  par  le  second 
plat,  selon  ie  cas.  Tous  les  autres  exempleires 
originaux  sont  filmis  en  commenpant  par  la 
premiere  page  qui  comporte  une  empreinte 
d'impression  ou  d'illustration  et  en  terminant  par 
la  dernidre  page  qui  comporte  une  telle 
empreinte. 


The  last  recorded  frame  on  each  microfiche 
shall  contain  the  symbol  —»>( meaning  "CON- 
TINUED"), or  the  symbol  y  (meaning  "END"), 
whichever  applies. 


Un  des  symboles  suivants  apparaftra  sur  la 
derniire  image  de  cheque  microfiche,  selon  le 
cas:  le  symbols  — ►  signifie  "A  SUIVRE",  le 
symbols  V  signifie  "FIN". 


iVIaps,  plates,  charts,  etc..  may  be  filmed  at 
different  reduction  ratios.  Those  too  large  to  be 
entirely  included  in  one  exposure  are  filmed 
beginning  in  the  upper  left  hand  corner,  left  to 
right  and  top  to  bottom,  as  many  frames  as 
required.  The  following  diagrams  illustrate  the 
method:  ■■     ■ 


Les  cartes,  planches,  tableaux,  etc.,  peuvent  Atre 
filmfo  A  des  taux  de  reduction  diff^rents. 
Lorsque  le  document  est  trop  grand  pour  Atre 
reproduit  en  un  seul  cliche,  11  est  fiimt  A  partir 
de  Tangle  sup^rieur  gauche,  de  gauche  A  droite, 
et  de  haut  en  bas,  en  prenant  le  nombre 
d'images  n6cessaire.  Les  diagrammes  suivants 
illustrent  la  mithode. 


1 

2 

3 

1 

2 

3 

;  4 

5 

6 

AD" 


f* 


THE 


ICELANDIC  DISCOVERERS 
OF    AMERICA 


OR 


HONOR  TO  WHOM  HONOR  IS  DUE 


BY 

MRS.  JOHN  B.  SHIPLEY 

(MARIE  A.  BROWN) 

ADTBOB  OF    "THE   SUWNT   NORTH;    OB,  SWEDEN    OP  THE  PAST  AND  OF  THE  PBESBMT;'^ 
"NOBWA?  as  it  is;"    and  translator  of     'the  SURQBON'S  STORIES," 
"KADE8CHDA,"    TEE    "  SCHWARTZ"    NOVELS,     ETC. 


"•ITicy  called  the  country  Vinland.^ 
*  We  know  it,'  said  I.    'J  am  a  Vinlander.  ^ " 

— Batabd  Tatlob. 


',  i" 


"t 


NEW  YORK 
JOHN  B.  ALDEN,  PUBLISHER 

1891 


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Mes.  JOHN  MORGAN  RICHARDfil, 

OI  LONDON, 

TH«  AMIBIOAK  rBUMO  WH08B  SYMPATHY 

WItH  MY  OISIBI  *A  HAYB  JU8TICB   SONB  TO   ICBIAND,  ANt    r- 

•U1»T  Of  TBI  DISCOVERY  OF  AMBBIOA  ASCBISBD  tO 

IHK  TBUB  DISCOVBBBB,   LBW  BBIKSOW, 

HAS  &BD  HXB  TO  AID  MB  SUBSTANTIALLY   IN  PLACINQ  THIS  WOMA 

OH  THB  SUBJBCT  BEFOBB  THB   WOBLD, 

I  PBDICATB  IT 

WITH  mmiUNTS  07  THB  MOST  OBATBFUL  BBOABo. 

MARIE  A.  BROWH, 


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Hi  .    <an«AHT.'.o'>    :.:)i©wV0D,«;sA  ^a3H»y<y>ai(:l  »«jioTi5 

CONTENTS. 

-  CHAPTER  I 


PAOB 


Thu  Immediate  Neoessity  of  EaTABLisniNO  the  Troth      1 

CHAPTER  11. 

The  Manifest  Duty  of  the  United   States  in  this    ' 
Question 35 

CHAPTER  III.  t^^^     ;, 

The  Evidenob  that  the  Icelanders  X)isootered  Am& 

m^^  l^  ™  ^"^^"  Century.     ^;|^^c    #r,0i*BaA3i    ^^ 

CHAPTER  rV. 

Roman  Catholic  Cognizance  op  the  Fact  at  the  Time 
OF  the  Icelandic  Discovery 70 

CHAPTER  V.       .^ 
All  the  Motives  fob  the  Concealment  and  Fraud   .    77 


CHAPTER  VL 
Columbus'  Visit  to  Iceland.       . 


100 


CHAPTER  VII.         • 
The  Scandinavian  H^orth  anp  Spain  Contrastup       ,111 


v! 


Contents. 


CHAPTER  Vin. 


»A«a 


Thb  Norsb  Disoovebers  and  Columbus  Contbasthd    .  147 


.Cii  TER  IX.   •x 

,'■. '  .1  -^ 

The  Beneficial  Besul'^  >  the  Present  Aob   and 

POSTBRITI       >P     Att  INO    THIS    MOMENTOUS  DIS- 
COVERY TO       -  ^  Persons        .        •        •         .  165 


""'  CHAPTER  X. 

The  Celebration  of  it  in  1985! 


.  185 


CHAPTER  XL  ,  ^ 

The  Righted  Position   of  the  Scandinayun  North 
after  this  Justice  has  been  accorded  to  it        .196 

Biblioorapht   of   the    important    Books    confirming       ,. 
the  Icelandic  Discovery  of  America,  from  the 
TEARS  1076-1883 209 


^  vj.-.'   :■ 


I  I   *••■■, 


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Oi^''^Hi■•'<r     )      Y\i:- 


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>:^H  .u>T 


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vhKI  r,t(WAjT:<T    mT    « 


:  ('.> 


::f  ,- 


i  fei    ;.'iir.ii   ii:  ir-''- 


THS 


ICELANDIC  DISCOVERERS  OF  AMERICA; 

HONOUR  TO  WHOM  HONOUR  IS  DUB. 

AJ  !i 


.1:  ^  r 


^>#X»^^^^^M»W 


'::)■■■:  yih  ;k:.iK' 


CHAPTER  L 


''10'  ■r.j't'   0(i1  lii  iv'iiiJiil'it) 

DOIBDIATB  NBOESSITT   OF   BSTA^LISHINO  THB  TBUTH*  lf,rft 

f 


And  why  the  immediate  necessity,  it  may  be  asked,  of  esta- 
blishing a  truth  that  has  been  hidden  for  a  thousand  years  f 
The  Norse  discovery  has  been  buried  in  antiquity  for  a  mil- 
lenary ;  admitting  that  it  was  an  actual  discovery,  it  was  made 
by  men  of  an  ancient  race  that  are  now  extinct ;  they  turned  it 
to  no  practical  account  and  it  led  to  no  practical  results.  More- 
over, the  accounts  of  it  are  too  vague  and  unauthentic  to  have 
been  made  a  matter  of  veritable  history;  we  have  all  been 
taught  that  Columbus  discovered  America,  and  it  is  very  hard 
to  disabuse  our  minds  of  that  idea. 

These  are  the  current  remarks  and  objections  that  greet  the 
nnlooked-for  assertion  that  the  Norsemen  discovered  Amerfoa. 
They  are  also  followed  by  the  assumption  that  it  is  a  matter  of 
no  importance  either  way,  and  may  be  left  to  antiquarians,  if 
they  ch<y>se  to  occupy  themselves  with  this  obscure  question. 

Following  out  this  conclusion,  if  it  is  indeed  a  matter  of  no 
importance  whether  the  Norsemen  discovered  America  or  not, 
li  becomes  equally  unimportant  whether  Columbus  discovered 


;  ov,,iii'.',.'ti 


n,\ 


«'j    jii' 


iV.»lI 


2    The   Icelandic  Discoverers  of  America  ; 


America  or  not,  and  the  discovery  of  the  western  continent 
ceases  to  be  one  of  the  greatest  of  events.  That  it  has  not  been 
considered  a  trifling  incident,  or  a  mere  matter  of  accident  that 
posterity  could  not  be  expected  to  bear  in  mind,  is  proven  by 
the  extreme  attention  history  has  devoted  to  it,  and  the  fame 
that  the  world,  at  the  bidding  of  the  imperative  mandate  of 
liistorj,  lias  accorded  to  Columbus,  as  a  man  who  has  accom- 
plished an  unparalleled  achievement.  If  this  fame  is  rightfully 
due  to  Columbus,  on  the  assumption  that  he  discovered  America, 
if  the  magnitude  of  the  achievement  is  not  exaggerated,  if  it 
was  an  herculean  undertaking  to  cross  the  ocean  on  such  a 
ilMent  in  those  days,  if  Columbus  should  enjoy  the  homage  of 
centuned  in  the  past  and  of  centuries  to  come,  then  the  same 
fame  is  rightfully  due  to  the  Norsemen,  on  the  assumption 
that  they  discovered  America,  the  magnitude  of  the  achievemeiit 
heinsi  greater  in  their  case,  inasmuch  as  it  was  accomplished 
ivo  iiu<iJred  years  before  Columbus  planned  his  enterprise,  and 
thus  presupposes  men  five  hundred  years  in  advance  of  him  in  in- 
telligence,  courage,  and  nautical  information  and  skill,  and  from 
the  additional  fact  that  this  was  only  one  of  many  undertakings 
3i>  their  part,  for  the  settlement  and  colonization  of  new  and 
far-off  lands,  if  not  their  discovery,  was  an  every-day  affair  with 
them.  The  lofty  pride  of  the  Norsemen,  even  more  than 
humility,  would  for  ever  have  prevented  them  from  boasting  of 
the  discovery  as  did  Columbus :  "  But  our  Redeemer  hath 
granted  this  victory  to  our  illustrious  king  and  queen  and  their 
kingdoms,  which  have  acquired  great  fame  by  an  event  of  such 
high  importance  in  which  all  Christendom  ought  to  rejoice,  and 
which  it  ought  to  celebrate  with  great  festivals  and  the  offering 
of  solemn  thanks  to  the  Holy  Trinity  with  many  solemn  prayers, 
both  for  the  great  exaltation  which  may  accrue  to  them  in 
turning  so  many  nations  to  onr  holy  faith,  and  also  for  the 
temporal  benefits  which  will  bring  great  refreshment  and  gain, 
not  only  to  Spain,  but  to  all  Christians."    He  wrote  besides: 


I 


.^' 


,  •■".•>>; 


OR,  Honour  to  whom  Honour  is  Due. 


**!  gave  to  the  subject  six  or  seven  years  of  great  anxiety, 
explaining  to  the  best  of  my  ability,  how  great  e'^rvice  might  be 
done  to  our  Lord,  by  this  undertaking,  in  promulgating  His 
sacred  name  and  our  holy  faith  among  so  m»ny  nations ;  an 
enterprise  so  exalted  in  itself,  and  so  calculated  to  enhance  the 
glory  and  immortalize  the  renown  of  great  sovereigns."  And 
one  who  edited  an  edition  of  Columbus'  lett-Ci-s,  says  in  his 
introduction :  "  The  entire  histo-y  of  civilization  presents  us 
with  no  event,  with  the  exception  perhaps  of  the  art  of  printing, 
so  momentous  as  the  discovery  of  the  western  world."  But  to 
a  race  who  had  founded  the  empire  of  Bussia,  the  republics  of 
Switzerland  and  Iceland,  who  had  conquered  Normandy  and 
Great  Britain,  keeping  a  line  of  kings  on  the  thrones  of  England 
and  France,  as  they  kept  their  czars  on  the  throne  of  Russia, 
who  "  revived  Hannibal's  exploits  in  Italy,"  and  shaped  the 
confines  of  that  land, — to  such  a  race  the  discovery  even  of 
America  was  not  an  achievement  so  ^auch  more  dazzling  than 
the  rest  of  their  mighty  deeds,  while  to  CJolumbus  it  was  the 
only  thing  he  ever  did. 

The  scope  of  the  Norse  undertakings  can  best  be  judged  by  a 
perusal  of  the  words  of  the  Swedish  historian,  Strinmholm,  on 
the  subject :  "  It  seems  wonderful  how  the  fleets  and  hosts  of 
the  Nortii  could  be  sufficient  to  embrace  the  whole  stretch  of 
coast  from  the  Elbe  clear  to  the  Pyrenese  peninsula,  and  for  a 
whole  generation  not  only  keep  the  lands  lying  along  the  whole 
coast  in  a  constant  state  of  siege,  but  also  to  extend  their 
expeditions  to  the  Meditenanean,  clear  to  the  coast  of  Italy, 
and  yet  during  the  same  time  the  British  Isles,  England, 
Ireland  and  Scotland,  continued  to  be  hard  pressed  by  the 
hosts  from  the  North." 

Columbus'  estimate,  however,  of  the  value  of  the  discovery 
of  the  "  New  World,"  was  not  extravagant  j  none  know  so  well 
the  value  of  a  thing  as  the  one  who  appropriates  it  wrongfully, 
and  the  usurper  is  a  good  juilge  of  the   territory  he  invades 

B  2 


mm 


4     The  Icelandic  Discoverers  of  America; 


**  A  practised  slave-dealer/'  as  Arthur  Helps  styles  him,  the 
commercial  faculty  was  largely  developed  in  him,  much  more 
largely  than  respect  for  the  rights  of  property ;  he  possessed 
himself  of  the  coveted  acquisition  of  the  Northmen,  robbed 
them  of  their  discovery,  with  the  same  ease  and  with  as 
little  compunction  as  he  kidnaped  slaves.  Note  a  little  sug- 
gestion of  his  to  their  "  highnesses  "  in  Spain,  this  likewise  for 
the  enhancement  of  their  greatness  and  the  glory  of  the  Lord : 
"Considering  what  great  need  we  have  of  cattle  and  of  beasts 
of  burthen,  both  for  food  and  to  assist  the  settlers  on  this  and 
all  these  islands,  both  for  peopling  the  land  and  for  cultivating 
the  soil,  their  Highnesses  might  authorize  a  suit'tb^c  number  of 
caravels  to  come  here  every  year  to  bring  over  the  said  cattle, 
and  provisions  and  other  articles ;  these  cattle,  &c.,  might  bo 
sold  at  moderate  prices  for  account  of  the  bearers,  and  the  latter 
might  be  paid  with  slaves,  taken  from  among  the  Carribees, 
who  are  a  wild  people,  fit  for  any  work,  well  proportioned  and 
very  intelligent,  and  who,  when  they  have  got  rid  of  the  cruel 
habits  to  wliich  they  have  become  accustomed,  will  be  better 
than  any  other  kind  of  slaves."  Commenting  upon  this,  Arthur 
Helps  says :  "  At  the  same  time  that  we  must  do  Columbus  the 
justice  to  believe  that  his  motives  were  right  in  his  own  eyts,  it 
must  be  admitted  that  a  more  distinct  suggestion  for  the  esta- 
blishing of  a  slave-trade  was  never  proposed."  These  slaves 
which  he  stole  were  to  be  exchanged  for  cattle  and  other 
necessaries  j  the  discovery  that  he  stole  was  to  be  converted  into 
honours,  wealth,  distinction,  an  undying  fame  and  saintship  for 
himself !  He  wielded  a  lucid  and  persuasive,  as  well  as  pious 
pen,  one  that  secured  spiritual  and  temporal  ends  with  equal 
facility,  and  he  represented  adequately  anil  explicitly  the  valup 
of  this  va£t  territorial  acquisition,  which  he  claimed  as  his  dis- 
covery, to  both  Church  and  Throne.  His  own  words  yield  the 
best  testimony.  After  reading  this  self-laudation,  what  an 
unconscious  satire  appear  the  words  of  William  Robertson,  in 


©fc,  ffoNOtfR  td  WttOM  Hoitduft  IS  tyxjtJ      i 


his  "  History  of  Ameritja,"  when  describing  this  man :  "  Co- 
luiubuf)^^  in  whose  character  the  modeety  and  diffidence  of  true 
genius  was  united  with  the  ardent  enthusiasm  of  a  projector." 
But  Columbus  has  a  modem  admirer  and  biographer  who  has 
struck  his  own  key  and  inflection,  and  who  both  revives  and 
perpetuates  the  fame  of  the  long-suffering  exile  from  pre- 
destined bliss,  by  building  his  "  Life  of  Columbus "  on  the 
eminently  pious  one  of  Boselly  de  Lorgues,  from  which  it  is 
compiled ;  this  Catholic  author,  J.  J.  Barry,  extols,  with  the 
rhapsody  of  the  faithful,  "  the  immortal  discoverer  of  America, 
who,  it  is  to  be  hoped,  will  ere  long  be  solemnly  enrolled 
on  the  glorious  catalogue  of  the  canonized  saints." 

That  Columbus'  words  were  entirely  convincing  to  the 
Church,  is  proven  by  the  fact  that  "Pope  Alexander  VI. 
(Boderigo  Borgia)  deeded  the  continent  of  America  to  Spain, 
solely  on  the  statement  of  Columbus,"  as  quoted  by  Aaron 
Qoodrich  in  his  work  "  History  of  the  Character  and  Achieve- 
ments of  the  sO'Called  Christopher  Columbus."  This  trenchant 
author,  who  dissects  Columbus'  character  in  the  most  unsparing 
way,  also  cites  Count  Koselly  de  Lorgues  on  the  above  point : 
"  The  pope  has  faith  in  Columbus.  He  yields  full  credence  to 
him  and  justifies  his  calculations.  It  is  solely  on  Columhus 
thai  he  depends  ;  it  is  relying  on  Columbus  that  he  engager  in 
the  vast  partition  of  the  unexplored  worlds  between  the  crowns 
of  Spain  and  Portugal.  Everything  the  messenger  of  the 
cross  proposes  is  granted  in  full,  as  a  thing  that  is  indicated  by 
Providence."  "  To  attack  the  latter  was,  therefore,"  comments 
Goodriffh,  "  to  attack  the  justice  of  the  pope's  bull,  and  an 
indirect  imputation  on  papal  infallibility.  ...  In  Spain  it  be- 
came necessary  for  all  who  would  write  a  history  of  the  New 
World  to  extol  Columbus  and  the  Church." 

In  the  "  Memorials  of  Columbus,"  a  collection  of  authentic 
documents,  whose  value  is  glowingly  stated  by  the  one  who 
ediUkL  them  and  wrote  the  historical  memoix^  D.  Qia  Batista 


6    The  Icelandic  Discoverers  of  America  ; 


.Spotoi'no,  as  "a  trensure  which  contains  the  diplomatic  history 

o{  the  discovery  of  Ameiica,  and  of  Christopher  Columbus ; 

that  is,  of  the  most  memorable  event  which  had  occurred  for 

ages,  and  of  a  hero  who  I'eflects  the  highest  honour  on  Genoa, 

on  Italy,  and  on  Europe," — in  this  book  will  be  found  the  famous 

Bull,  of  which  the  following  is  an  extract :  "  And  in  order  that 

you  may  undertake  more  freely  and  boldly  the  charge  of  so 

great  an  affair,  given  to  you  with  the  liberality  of  apostolic 

.grace,  We  of  our  own  motion,  and  not  at  your  solicitation,  nor 

upon  petition  presented  to  us  upon  this  subject  by  other  persons 

.in  your  name,  but  of  our  pure  will  and  certain  knowledge,  and 

with  the  plenitude  of  apostolic  power,  by  the  authority  of  God 

■omnipotent  granted  to  Us  through  blessed  Peter,  and  of  the 

▼icarship  of  Jesus  Christ,  which  we  exercise  upon  earth,  by  the 

tenor  of  the  presents,  give,  concede  and  assign  for  ever  to  you, 

,and  to  the  kings  of  Castile  and  Leon,  your  successors,  all  the 

islands  and  .mainlands  discovered  and  which  may  hereafter  be 

.discovered,    towards    the    west    and     south,    with    all  their 

•dominions,  cities,  castles,  places  and  towns,  and  with  all  their 

rights,  jurisdictions,  and  appurtenances,  whether  the  lands  and 

islands  found,  or  that  shall  be  found,  be  situated  towards  India, 

or  towards  any  other  part  whatsoever;  and  we  make,  constitute 

and  depute  yoa,  and  your  aforesaid  heirs  and  successors,  lords 

of  them,  with  full,  free  and  absolute  power  and  authority  and 

jurisdiction:  drawing,   however,  and   fixing  a  line  from  the 

'Arctic  pole,  viz.,  ftom  the  north,  to  the  antarctic  pole,  viz.,  to 

the  south ;  which  line  must  be  distant  from  any  one  of  the 

islands  whatsoever,  vulgarly  called  the  Azores  and  Cape  de  Verde 

islands,  a  hundred  leagues  towards  the  west  and  south — " 

It  will  be  gratifying  to  Americans  to  see  the  disposition  that 
was  made  of  their  country  ;  a  disposition  that  the  Roman  Catholic 
power  evidently  regards  as  final  and  irrevocable.  The  author 
before  quoted,  Barry,  may,  I  think,  be  said  to  interpret  the  views 
of  the  Bomisb  hierarchy,  when  he  reasons  that  "  the  question  ia 


OR,  Honour  to  whom  Honour  is  Due. 


not  concerning  an  international  interest,  or  of  an  affair  to 
regulate  for  Castile,  but  about  interests  of  vital  importance  to 
Catholicity,  to  the  salvation  of  souls,  and  to  the  extension  of 
the  kingdom  of  Jesus  Christ  .  .  .  And  here  we  see  visibly," 
he  continues,  **  the  participation  of  the  Church  in  the  discovery, 
and  where  we  perceive  her  agency,  in  the  benediction  given  by 
Innocent  HI.  to  the  enterprise  of  his  countryman.  .  .  .  Kome 
comprehended  Columbus.  Now  to  comprehend  is,  in  a  certain 
sense,  to  become  equal  to.  All  the  sympathies  of  the  Holy  Father 
and  of  the  Sacred  College,  were  in  favour  of  Columbus."  That 
these  '*  sympathies  "  remain  \inchanged,  is  shown  by  his  further 
words,  as  well  as  by  a  mass  of  outside  evidence :  "  When  lately 
in  Home  we  rendered  homage  to  the  moral  and  religious  purity 
of  Columbus,  and  declared  his  grandeur,  our  voice  received,  in 
the  places  of  the  pontificate,  only  friendliness  and  encourage- 
ment." Without  substantial  support  from  head-quarters,  unless 
he  was  acting  with  a  warrant,  he  could  scarcely  proceed  with  so 
much  confidence  and  affirm  :  "Evidently  God  chose  Columbus 
as  a  messenger  of  salvation ; "  and  "  The  time  for  his  historic 
rehabilitation  has  come  at  last,"  removing'  all  uncertainty  and 
suspense  on  this  head  by  declaring  at  once :  "  The  necessity  of  a 
new,  full  and  complete  history  of  the  New  World  has  been 
much  felt ;  this  necessity,  which  so  much  resembles  a  duty,  has 
been  deeply  felt  in  the  Eternal  City  ;  and  we  proceed  to  respond 
to  it."  Not  content  with  saying  that  "  it  is  too  much  forgotten 
that  the  work  effected  by  Columbus  is  unequaled  in  history," 
he  reaches  a  Roman  Catholic  climax  by  exclaiming:  "We 
declare  before  God,  who  knows  it,  and  before  men,  who  do  not 
know  it,  that  Christopher  Columbus  was  a  Saint." 

In  the  words  that  the  late  King  Alfonso  is  reported  to  have 
uttered  in  course  of  conversation  with  Clarence  Winthrop 
Bowen,  we  see  that  the  modem  estimate  of  an  occupant  of  the 
Spanish  throne  coincides  perfectly  wHh  the  joint  estimate  of 
Spain  and  Borne  in  the  past,  in  regard  to  the  immense  value  of 


»  ■)! 


8     The  Icelandic  Discoverers  of  America  ; 


!'l 


:^:'l 


this  discovery.  The  two  persons  mentioned  were  speaking 
about  the  four  hundredth  anniversary  of  the  discovery  of 
America  by  Columbus,  and  the  king  thought  that  nine  years 
was  a  long  time  to  spend  in  arranging  for  the  celebration,  but 
perhaps  not  too  long  considering  its  importance.  "  It  is  an 
event,"  he  said,  "  in  which  all  the  world  would  be  interested, 
and  in  which  the  leading  nations  might  unite.  I  would  do  all 
in  my  power  to  make  it  a  brilliant  festival ;  but,  considering  the 
pre-eminent  part  that  Spain  took  in  the  discovery  of  America, 
I  claim  that  she  should  certainly  be  allowed  to  have  the 
celebration  within  her  own  borders.  Italy  gave  birth  to 
C!olumbu8,  it  is  true.  Other  countries  considered  his  ideas  only 
visionary  schemes.  But  it  was  Spain  alone  that  furnished  the 
means  for  carrying  into  practical  effect  what  would  otherwise 
have  been  only  a  dream.  To  Spain  alone,  therefore,  belongs 
the  credit  of  the  discovery." 

A  few  panegyrics  of  Columbus  by  modem  authors  and 
historians  may  appropriately  be  culled  and  laid  before  the 
reader,  as  further  evidence  of  the  value  ascribed  to  this 
discovery,  for  it  is  obvious  that  Columbus  is  extolled  solely  for 
that,  and  that  his  elevation  from  obscurity  is  due  to  that  one 
achievement  alone. 

In  Bancroft's  "History  of  the  United  States*'  stand  the 
words :  '*  The  enterprise  of  Columbus,  the  most  memorable 
maritime  enterprise  in  the  history  of  the  world,  formed  between 
Europe  and  America  the  communication  that  will  never  cease  " 
Arthur  Helps,  in  his  "  Life  of  Columbus,"  says  that  "  perhaps 
there  are  few  of  the  great  personages  in  history  who  have  bofin 
more  talked  about  and  written  about  than  Christopher 
Columbus,  the  discoverer  of  America."  To  quote  another 
passage  of  his :  "  Modem  familiarity  with  navigation  renders  it 
difficult  for  us  to  appreciate  adequately  the  greatness  of  the 
enterprise  which  was  undertaken  by  the  discoverers  of  the  Now 
I  World."    But  the  wr.ter  obviously  fails  to  see  that  the  ancient 


OR,  Honour  to  whom  Honour  is  Dub. 


familiarity  with  navigation,  as  evinced  by  the  Norsemen,  rendered 
it  surprising  and  well-nigh  incomprehensible  that  Columbus 
could  have  encountered  so  much  difficulty  in  finding  ships, 
crews,  the  necessary  outfit  for  a  voyage,  and  in  managing  the 
undertaking.  The  accounts  read  as  if  this  might  have  been  the 
first  voyage  on  record,  from  any  port ;  as  risky,  altogether,  as 
the  first  balloon  ascension. 

"Washington  Irving,  in  his  "  Life  of  Columbus,"  in  describing 
Columbus'  state,  after  land  had  been  descried,  on  that  first 
voyage,  remarks :  **  He  had  secured  himself  a  glory  which 
must  be  as  durable  as  the  world  itself,"  but  it  is  not  quite  plain 
whether  this  is  the  author's  reflection  or  Columbus',  or  a  blending 
of  the  two. 

But  for  Christopher  Columbus  substitute  the  Norsemen  ;  for 
Spain  substitute  the  Scandinavian  North  ;  for  the  date  1492 
substitute  the  dates  982-85  ;  for  San  Salvador  and  San  Domingo 
substitute  Greenland,  Labrador^  Nova  Scotia,  Ehode  Island, 
and  Massachusetts ;  for  a  discoverer  of  two  islands,  who  did  not 
explore  the  mainland  to  any  extent,  substitute  the  discoverers 
who  traversed  the  eastern  coast  of  America  from  Labrador  to 
Florida,  just  as  their  forefathers  had  traversed  the  western 
coast  of  Europe  from  the  Hebrides  to  Africa ;  for  a  discoverer 
who  stole  his  information,  thus  buying  himself  name  and 
repute  at  the  Spanish  court,  and  who  went  to  America  in  search 
of  gold  and  slaves,  also  to  appropriate  new  territory  for  the 
preaching  of  the  Gospel,  substitute  the  genuine  discoverers, 
who  were  adepts  in  the  art  of  navigation,  \\ho  had  already 
established  so  many  colonies  and  formed  so  many  governments 
that  this  had  become  an  old  story  to  them,  and  who  being 
above  the  incentives  of  lucre  and  Papal  patronage,  devoted 
themselves  to  industry,  commerce  between  the  newly  discovered 
continent,  Greenland,  Iceland,  and  Scandinavia,  and  such  a 
thorough  and  intelligent  exploration  of  it  as  to  rouse  the 
cupidity  of  southtrn  Europe,  tive  hundred   years  after  their 


10   The  Icelandic  Discoverers  of  America; 


mi 

\m 


discovery^  when  an  opportunity  offered  in  the  penon  of 
Columbus^  for  its  states  to  avail  themselves  of  it^  and  to  confirm 
,  the  fact  of  their  prior  discovery^  in  documents  so  reliable  and 
authentic  as  to  convince  the  modem  worlds  after  three  hundred 
years  of  systematic  concealment,  of  garbled  history  and  fraud 
on  the  part  of  the  Roman  Catholic  Church  and  its  adherents ; 
and  when  these  substitutions  are  made,  does  the  value  of  the 
discovery  become  less  f  Does  it  not  rather  become  greater  as 
showing  how  deeply  those  wearing  the  mantle  of  holiness,  as 
well  as  the  royal  purple,  have  been  willing  to  perjure  themselves 
for  the  gains)  And  these  men  have  intoned  for  ages: 
"  Beware  of  covetousness  1 "  Is  it  the  duty  of  all  "  the  leading 
nations  to  unite/'  to  use  King  Alfonso's  words,  to  celebrate 
this  fraud  of  half  a  millenary's  duration,  and  by  publicly 
recognizing  the  claim  of  Columbus'  discovery  gratify  the 
covetousness  of  the  Mother  Church  by  turning  the  American 
Bepublic  over  to  it,  as  its  spiritual  and  temporal  property  1 

A  moment's  attention  to  another  reading  of  this  fact  in 
history,  from  a  northern  instead  of  a  southern  standpoint,  will 
show  that  the  discovery  in  itself  loses  nothing  by  a  change  of 
characters.  In  the  first  part  of  the  latest  history  of  Sweden, 
under  the  joint  authorship  of  Drs.  Montelius  and  Hildebrand, 
Professors  WeibuU,  Alin,  Boethius,  and  others,  there  occurs 
this  passage,  from  the  pen  of  .Dr.  Oscar  Montelius :  "  We  have 
seen  how  the  Northerners,  during  the  Viking  period,  carried 
their  victorious  arms  to  most  of  the  countries  of  Europe.  All 
the  intercourse  between  the  North  and  the  rest  of  the  world 
during  this  time,  however,  was  not  warlike,  for  peaceful  com- 
merce was  even  then  of  an  importance,  which  one  has  been 
but  too  much  inclined  to  under-estimate.  Foremost  among 
peaceful  voyages  during  the  Viking  period  must  we  remember 
the  bold  voyages  of  discovery  which  the  Norsemen  then  made. 
Already  have  we  mentioned  how  they  settled  Iceland;  from 
there  they  found  first  Greenland  and  afterwards  Vinland,  or  the 


OR,  Honour  to  whom  Honour  is  Due.     ii 


north-eafitem  part  of  what  we  now  call  the  United  States  uf 
Aaierica.  To  the  Northmen  is  due  the  great  glory,  so  far  as 
history  knows,  of  having  first,  among  all  the  people  of  Europe, 
discovered  America,  and  it  was  half  a  millenary  before  the 
inhabitants  of  southern  Europe  found  their  way  to  the  new 
world,  possibly  led  there  by  the  eagor  of  the  Norsemen's 
,  voyages." 

Another  Swedish  historian,  A.  E.  Holmberg,  in  his  "  Norse- 
men during  the  Pagan  Period,"  ascribes  the  same  glory  to  the 
discovery :  "  The  treatise  on  the  naval  operations  of  our  fore- 
fathers we  can  scarcely  end  more  suitably  than  with  the 
mention  of  their  most  daring  naval  exploit — an  event,  which 
not  only  in  and  of  itself,  but  also  through  its  results,  shrewdly 
concealed  until  our  time,  is  of  world-historic  importance,  I 
mean  the  discovery  of  America  by  the  Iforsemen  toward  the  close 
of  900.  The  matter,  it  is  true,  was  some  years  ago  explained 
and  made  known ;  the  details  of  it,  however,  may  in  general 
be  less  known.  From  childhood  we  have  all  heard  that  the 
discovery  of  the  piew  world  was  exclusively  Columbus'  exploit. 
His  glory  in  defying  prejudices  and  overcoming  the  difficulties 
and  obstacles  that  rose  against  such  an  undertaking  no  people 
and  no  age  can  diminish  ;  but  nevertheless,  the  discovery  of 
this  world  was  never  his;  the  glory  of  this  belongs  to  the 
Norsemen  alone." 

Or  if  we  turn  to  English  authors,  Wheaton,  Laing,  Pigott, 
Beamish,  the  Howitts,  Carlyle,  all  credit  the  fact  of  the  Norse 
discovery,  and  several  of  them,  together  with  Scandinavian 
writers  and  historians  of  note,  give  so  much  testimony  with 
regard  to  Columbus'  visit  to  Iceland,  that  I  reserve  the  im- 
portant passages  relating  to  this  secret  visit  of  the  ambitious 
and  unscrupulous  southerner,  so  pregnant  with  results,  for  the 
cha[)ter  that  is  to  treat  of  it  exclusively.  The  third  chapter 
contains  the  evidence  of  the  Norse  discovery,  taken  from  as 
many  authors  as  has  been  found  practicaljle,  and  giving  the 


i 


12    TpE  Icelandic  Discoverers  of  America  j 


li;,: 


I  'i 


iiii 


opinions  that  are  of  the  most  value  on  this  important  subject. 
For  the  sources  of  all  the  knowledge  that  has  as  yet  been 
derived,  the  reader  is  referred  to  the  bibliography  at  the  end  of 
this  book.   '  u^/  ,;>ur^, 

The  American  author,  Aaron  Goodrich,  traces  the  sequence 
between  the  greatness  of  the  true  discoverers  and  the  greatness 
of  their  discovery,  showing  that  one  was  attributable  to  the 
other :  '*  While  the  greater  part  of  Europe  was  plunged  in  the 
intellectual  darkness  which  pervaded  the  middle  ages,  while 
the  monk  in  his  cloister  toiled  laboriously  during  a  life-time  to 
perpetuate  some  one  work  of  saiintly  or  classic  lore,  and  the 
masses  were  ignorant,  superstitious,  the  slaves  of  feudal  lords 
and  barons  scarcely  less  ignorant  than  themselves,  a  people 
flourished  in  the  extreme  north,  with  whom  enterprise  and 
freedom  were  neither  dead  nor  stagnant,  who  possessed  scien- 
tific knowledge  and  applied  the  same  to  practical  purposes ;  a 
people  simple,  fearless  and  energetic,  republicans  in  practice  if 
not  in  name,  with  whom  chieftains  were  the  fathers  and  pro- 
tectors of  their  followers,  sharing  their  perils  and  respecting 
their  rights ;  a  pagan  people  indeed,  worshippers  of  Odin  and 
Thor,  believers  in  the  joys  of  Walhalla,  yet  doers  of  deeds  so 
noble  as  to  be  worthy  the  most  enlightened  Christian  :  such  were 
the  Northmen  ;  such  their  simple  records,  which  bear  every  im- 
press of  truth,  prove  them  to  have  been.  Issuing  from  an  Asiatic 
hive,  they  early  overran  Norway  and  Sweden  ;  their  language, 
the  old  Danish  or  Ddnsk  iunga,  is  now  preserved  only  in  Ice- 
land, which  they  colonized  in  the  year  875;  in  985  they  re- 
discovered and  colonized  Greenland ;  the  same  year  the 
American  continent  proper  was  discovered  by  them,  and, 
during  the  first  years  of  the  eleventh  century,  they  made 
thither  frequent  voyages,  residing,  for  periods  of  several  years, 
at  different  times,  in  what  is  now  called  New  England." 

The  Norwegian-American  writer,  Professor  R.  B.  Anderson, 
iu  his  stirring  book  "  America  not  Discovored  by  Columbus, ' 


1 


OR.  Honour  to  whom  Honour  is  Due.     13 


traces  this  sequence  still  further,  namely,  to  the  result  that  has 
now  become  the  modem  point  of  issue,  the  Columbian  oi 
bogus  discovery,  which  was  based  upon  the  Norse  one :  •'  It 
was  the  first  settlement  of  Iceland  by  the  Norsemen,  and  the 
constant  voyages  between  this  island  and  Norway,  that  led  to 
the  discovery,  first  of  Greenland  and  then  of  America ;  and  it 
is  due  to  the  high  intellectual  standing  and  fine  historical  taste 
of  the  Icelanders  that  records  of  these  voyages  were  kept,  first 
to  instruct  Columbus  how  to  find  America,  and  afterward  to 
solve  for  us  the  mysteries  concerning  the  discovery  of  this 
continent." 

It  is  indisputably  true  that  the  value  of  the  discovery  is 
sufficient  to  command  the  attention  of  all  ages ;  the  truth  as  to 
the  discoverer  remains  to  be  demonstrated,  and  that  is  the 
proud  task  of  the  present  age,  nay,  of  this  coming  year,  for  the 
American  people  should  not  let  1887,  the  year  of  the  National 
Exhibition  on  English  soil,  draw  to  a  close,  without  a  national 
declaration  of  the  truth  of  the  discovery  of  their  country  by  the 
Norsemen,  a  public  acknowledgment  of  the  debt  of  gratitude 
in  which  they  stand  to  the  Scandinavian  North,  for  which  they 
are  indebted  for  the  principles  of  liberty,  "  for  the  hardiest 
elements  of  progress  in  the  United  States,"  according  to  Ben- 
jamin Lossing,  and  an  equally  public  repudiation  of  the  false 
claim  of  Columbus,  throwing  oflT,  with  the  same  indignant 
scorn  as  once  the  Mother  country-,  when  it  attemjited  oppres- 
sion, the  clutch  of  the  Mother  Church  and  its  obedient  vassal 
Spain,  to  whom  the  Republic  can  charge  the  slavery  that 
blackened  its  annals  as  a  nation  for  so  many  years,  the  terrible 
war  arising  from  that  pernicious  system  introduced  by  Spain 
and  largely  kept  alive  by  the  Boman  Catholic  democratic  party, 
North  and  South,  all  this  evil  in  the  past,  and  to  whom,  in  the 
future,  it  would  inevitably  owe  its  destruction  as  a  nation,  the 
subversion  of  its  free  Constitution,  and  its  transformation  into  a 
huge  benighted  territory  indistinguishable  in  its  mental  and 


14    The  Icelandic  Discoverers  Of  America: 


i 


.moral  attributes  from  South  America.^  the  Bouthcrn  half  of 
what  the  Church  of  Rome  fondly  looks  forward  to  as  the 
Roman  Catholic  hemisphere, — if  the  claim  that  Columbus  dis- 
covered America  should  be  admitted  by  it,  as  a  nation. 

This  is  the  reason  why  it  is  necessary  for  the  truth,  as  to  the 
discovery  of  America,  to  be  established  immediately.  The 
near  approach  of  the  four  hundredth  anniversary  of  the 
landing  and  alleged  discovery  of  Columbus,  has  revived  the 
subject  in  the  public  mind  and  the  floating  rumours,  occasion- 
ally taking  a  concrete  form  in  the  American  newspapers,  of  a 
grand  commemoration  of  the  event,  convert  \^  into  a  subject 
that  must  soon  be  decided  one  way  or  the  other,  and  the 
approaching  date,  October  12th,  1892,  into  the  date  of  a  most 
momentous  decision,  one  that  will  fairly  shake  the  world  with 
its  reverberation  I     This  approaching  anniversary  of  a  fraudu- 

'  lent  discovery,  the  resolution  of  the  United  States  with  regard 
to  it,  their  celebration  of  it,  or  their  refusal  to  celebrate   it, 

'  ■will  test  the  sincerity  and  earnestness  of  the  work  of  which 
the  year  1876  was  the  glorious  centennial;  it  will  decide 
whether  the  date  1892  is  to  obliterate  the  date  1776,  whether 
the  Government,  claiming  to  be  purely  secular,  which  has  from 
the  hour  the  Constitution  was  framed  refused  to  admit  the 
word  "  God "  into  it,  will  then  be  willing  to  insert  both  God 
and  Pope  in  it ;  whether  the  country  that  indignantly  threw  off 
all  allegiance  in  1776  will  then  yield  allegiance  to  the  foulest 
tyrant  the  world  has  ever  had,  the  Roman  Catholic  power ! 

As  straws  show  which  way  the  wind  blows,  it  is  worth  while 
to  note  these  newspaper  bits  :  "  It  is  proposed  to  have  a  World's 
Fair  in  Chicago  in  1892,  in  commemoration  of  the  four 
hundredth  anniversary  of  the  landing  of  Columbus  in 
America."  Another  scrap  indicated  that  the  matter  of  a  cele- 
bration, of  some  kind,  of  this  event  was  under  consideration,  in 

,  Washington.  Another  ran  thus :  **  The  Spaniards  have  not 
yot  made  np  their  minds  how  to  celebrate  the  four  hundredth 


.iiii 


1    ' 


OR,  Honour  to  whom  Honour  is  Dub.     15 


anniversary  of  the  sailing  of  Columbus  ;"  which  was  contro- 
verted by  the  following  programme:  "  It  is  proposed  in  Spain 
to  start  a  fleet  of  ships,  representing  all  maritime  nations,  from 
the  little  port  of  Palos,  in  Spain,  on  August  3rd,  1892,  the 
four  hundredth  anniversary  of  the  sailing  of  Columbus,  and  to 
have  the  fleet  sail  to  San  Salvador  over  the  route  taken  by  the 
great  discoverer."  Another  significant  scrap  made  its  appearance 
in  an  editorial  column :  "  As  an  inducement  to  celebrate  the  fourth 
cente.nary  of  Columbus'  landing,  Americans  are  offered  a 
chance  to  gaze  upon  the  identical  chains  with  which  Bobadella 
loaded  the  wrists  of  Columbus  when  the  great  seaman  was  sent 
back  to  Spain  a  prisoner  in  1500.  It  is  an  Italian  chevalier 
who  owns  these  dumb  but  eloquent  articles,  and  to  secure  them 
he  made  costly  journeys  to  Spain  and  America.  For  twenty  years 
he  has  kept  the  matter  a  profound  sectet,  having  personal  reasons 
for  this  reticence.  But  now  they  will  be  shown,  and  managers 
of  dime  museums  who  know  their  business  will  take  the  hint." 
But  here  is  something  that  intimates  the  absolute  destruction 
of  the  plans  mentioned :  "  Just  as  we  are  talking  about  a  cele- 
bration of  the  four  hundredth  anniversary  of  Columbus* 
discovery  of  land  on  the  western  hemisphere,  some  Danish 
ethnologists  are  trying  to  prove  that  the  Genoese  navigator 
had  borrowed  all  he  knew  from  an  old  Iceland  manuscript  of 
the  seventh  century,^  in  which  this  continent  was  fully  described." 
The  phrase  "are  trying  to  prove"  hardly  fits  the  case;  the  in- 
contestable fact  is  that  the  "old  Iceland  manuscript"  referred 
to  is  in  the  possession  of  the  Danish  Government,  and  that  the 
Royal  Society  of  Northern  Antiquaries,  in  Copenhagen,  have 
placed  its  contents  before  the  modern  world,  in  the  splendid 
work  "  Antiquitates  Auiericanae,"  by  Professor  Rafn,  in  which 
the  narratives  of  the  Norse  voyages  to  America,  besides  being 
reproduced  in  the  old  Icelandic,  are  rendered  into  the  Latin 
and  Danish  languages.  An  English  translation  having  been 
<«  ,  '  The  wrong  date.   „  ^  •   '     • 


i6   The  Tcelandic  Discoverers  of  America  ; 


"I 
'ill 


made  of  those  by  North  Ludlow  Beamish,  this  in  turn  has  been 
reprodaced  by  the  Prince  Society  in  Boston,  under  the  title : 
"Voyages  of  the  Northmeii  to  America,"  published  in  1877. 
This  is  only  one  of  <"  jveral  translations  into  English,  so  that 
the  contents  of  that  portion  of  the  "  Codex  Flatoiensis  "  relating 
to  the  discovery  of  America  is  in  reality  accessible  to  alL  In 
Samuel  Laing's  preliminary  dissertation  to  his  translation  of  the 
"  Heimskringla,"  the  famous  chronicle  of  the  kings  of  Norway 
written  by  Snorre  Sturleson,  which  also  contains,  in  the  saga  of 
Olaf  Tryggvason,  historical  testimony  of  the  discovery  of 
America  by  the  Northmen,  is  to  be  found  an  account  of  this 
priceless  volume  :  '  The  Flateyar  Annall,  or  Codex  Flatoiensis,' 
by  far  the  most  important  of  Icelandic  manuscripts,  takes  its 
name  from  the  island  Flato,  in  Bredetiord  in  Iceland,  where  it 
had  been  long  preserved,  and  where  Bishop  Swendson  of 
Skalholt  purchased  it,  about  1650,  from  the  owner  Jonas 
Torfeson,  for  King  Frederick  III.,  giving  in  exchange  for  it  the 
perpetual  exemption  from  land-tax  of  a  small  estate  of  the 
owner.  The  manuscript  is  in  large  folio,  beautifully  written  on 
parchment.  On  the  fii-st  page  stands :  '  This  book  is  owned 
by  Ion  Hakonson.  Here  are  first  songs;  then  how  Norway 
was  inhabited  or  settled ;  then  of  Eric  Vidforla  (the  far-traveled); 
thereafter  of  Olaf  Tryggvason,  and  all  his  deeds ;  then  next  the 
saga  of  King  Olaf  the  Saint,  with  all  his  deeds  and  therewith 
the  sagas  of  the  Orkney  Earls  ;  then  the  saga  of  Swerrer  and 
thereafter  the  saga  of  Hakon  the  Old,  with  the  sagas  of  King 
Miignus  his  son  ;  then  are  deeds  of  Einer  Sokkeson  of  Green- 
Icind,  thereafter  of  Helge  and  Ulf  the  Bad ;  then  begin  annals 
from  the  time  the  world  was  made,  showing  all  to  the  present 
time  that  is  come.  The  priest  Ion  Thordarson  has  written  from 
Eric  Vidforla,  and  the  two  sagas  of  the  Olafs ;  and  priest 
Magnus  Thorhallsson  has  written  from  thence,  and  also  what  is 
written  before,  and  has  illuminated  the  whole.  God  Almighty 
and  the  Holy  Virgin  bless  those  who  wrote,  and  him  who 


ilii 


OR,  Honour  to  whom  Honour  is  Dub.   17 


dictated.' .  .  .  The  Codex  Flatoiensis  is  not  an  original  work 
by  one  author,  but  a  collection  of  sagas  transcribed  from  older 
luannscripts,  and  arranged  in  so  far  chronologically  that  the 
accounts  are  placed  under  the  reign  in  which  the  events  th»'y 
tell  of  happened,  although  not  connected  with  it  or  with  each 
other.  Under  the  saga  of  Olaf  Tryggvason  are  comprehended 
the  sagos  of  the  Feroe  Islands  ;  of  the  Vikings  of  Jomsburg  ;  of 
Erik  Red  and  Leif  his  son,  the  discoverers  of  Greenland  and 
Vinland  ;  and  the  voyages  of  Karlsefne  to  Vinland,  and  all  the 
circumstances,  true  or  false,  of  their  adventures." 

As  for  Columbus  having  "  borrowed  all  he  knew  "  from  this 
old  Icelandic  manuscript,  the  same  author,  Laing,  to  whom  the 
world  is  deeply  indebted  for  enlightenment  on  this  hidden 
history,  has  important  testimony  to  give.  "  The  discovery  of 
America  or  Vinland,  in  the  11th  century,  by  the  same  race  of 
enduring,  enterprising  seamen,  is  not  less  satisfactorily  established 
by  documentary  evidence  than  the  discovery  and  colonization 
of  Greenland ;  but  it  rests  entirely  upon  documentary  evidence, 
which  cannot,  as  in  the  case  of  Greenland,  be  substantiated  by 
anything  to  be  discovered  in  America.  .  .  .  All  that  can  be 
proved,  or  that  is  required  to  be  proved,  for  establishing  the 
priority  of  the  discovery  of  America  by  the  Northmen,  is  that 
the  saga  or  traditional  account  of  these  voyages  in  the  1 1  th 
century  was  committed  to  writing  at  a  known  date,  viz.  between 
1387  and  1395,  in  a  manuscript  of  unquestioned  authenticity, 
of  which  these  particular  sagas  or  accounts  relative  to  Vinland 
form  but  a  small  portion ;  and  that  this  known  date  was  eighty 
years  before  Columbus  visiteil  Iceland  to  obtain  nautical  infor- 
mation, viz.  in  1477,  when  he  must  have  heard  of  this  written 
account  of  Vinland ;  and  it  was  not  till  1492  that  he  discovered 
I  America.  This  sini])le  fact  established  on  documents  altogether 
incontrovertible,  is  sufficient  to  prove  all  that  is  wanted  to  be 
[proved,  or  can  be  proved,  and  is  much  more  clearly  and  ably 
Btated  by  Thormod  Torfseus,  the  great  antiquary  of  the   last 


1 8    The  Icelandic  Discoverers  of  America; 


li 


; 


! 


m 


century,  than  it  hap  been  since,  in  his  very  rare  little  tract| 
'Historia  Vinlandite  Antiqute,'  1707." 

A  credibility  is  thus  given  to  this  one  manuscript  from  the 
North,  not  only  by  Laing,  but  by  Alexander  von  Humboldt  and 
hosts  of  others,  that  the  collective  testimony  of  the  south  lacks  : 
whole  libraries  of  lives  of  Columbus  and  histories  of  the  New 
World  weigh  as  nothing  against  it.  The  intrinsic  truth  of  its 
written  words  gjiin  an  absolute  authority  from  the  integrity  of 
the  race  from  which  it  issued.  Iceland  has  been  the  island 
refuge  of  this  truth  ;  Iceland  has  preserved  it  sacredly,  and 
now  transmits  it  to  the  Republic  that  she,  in  her  own  palmiest 
days  as  a  Republic,  conduced  to  found. 

American  honour  is  at  stake !  It  is  a  national  obligation 
for  the  American  Republic  to  proclaim  this  truth  and  to  do  it 
quickly.  The  freest  country  cannot  obey  the  behest  of  the 
mos^  slavish  one  I  America  and  Spain  cannot  be  linked  together 
in  eternal  union  1  the  land  that  is  the  synonym  of  progress 
bound  to  the.  land  that  is  the  synonym  of  decay !  The  germ 
of  republicanism,  of  libv.*ty,  was  planted  in  America  by  the 
North,  tho  germ  of  ;l«,very  by  the  South,  by  Spain  and  the 
Church  of  Rome.  Which  germ  shall  be  allowed  to  grow  1 
Both  oannct  ."  e  on  American  soil !  The  history  of  Europe  is 
the  history  of  this  conflict  between  the  North  and  the  South, 
between  free-minded  Scandinavia  and  the  arch-tyrant  Rome. 
In  Europe  R"me  has  virtually  conquered,  for  it  succeeded  in 
converting  or  Chrisl^ianizing  all  the  nations  that  comprise 
Europe,  including  the  Scantlinavian.^,  who  ofl'ered  the  most 
stubborn  resistance,  but  were  finally  obliged  to  succumb,  idbeit 
five  hundred  years  after  all  the  others  had  bowed  under  the  yoke 
of  Rome.  Tlie  struggle  is  now  to  be  continued  in  the  United 
States.  The  double  discovery  ot  America  is  symbolical  of  this, 
and  is  also  the  signal  for  contention.  The  true  discovery  was 
by  men  from  the  North,  and  of  that  portion  of  the  land  lying 
in  the  north ,  the  alleged  or  false  discovery  was  by  men  from 


OR,  Honour  to  whom  Honour  is  Due.  19 


Spain,  and  of  islands  south  even  of  the  continent.     In  the  one 

case  no  appropriation,  in  the  other  an  immediate  deed  of  the 

land,   nay,   of  the  whole  hemisphere,   by  the  Pope  to  the 

Sovereigns  of  Spain.     The  Norsemen  named  the  land  after  its 

good  qualities,  Vinland ;  the  Spaniards,  according  to  the  base 

use  they  meant  to  make  of  it :  "  The  Land  of  fhe  Holy  CroaSf , 

I  or  New  World."    The  Spaniards  intended  America  to  be  the 

empire  of  the  Pope  in  a  sense  in  which  Europe  had  failed  to 

be  it,  the  perfection   of  the  original  design,  matured  in  the 

second  and  third  centuries,  having  been  impaired  by  the  pagana 

fof  the  North.     But  the  Norsemen  were  in  their  graves;  the 

[wholesale  Christianizing  of  Scandinavia  had  put  their  very 

Upirit,  soul,  in  the  grave.    What  a  divine  retribution  it  would 

|be  upon  this  impious  race,  according  to  the  Catholic  way  of 

reasoning,  to  steal  their  discovery,  appropriate  the  land  that 

they  had  found  and  convert  it  into  what  Europe  should  have 

sn,  toould  have  been,  if  Ferdinand  and  Isabella,  Philip  II., 

]!harlemagne  and  a  few  others  could  have  completed  the  work 

)f  exterminating  heretics  I 

The  Roman  Catholic,  J.  J.  Barry,  unwraps  the  motive,  the 
{Forced  tendency,  from  all  disguise,  and  says  plainly :  "  The  first 
)biect  of  the  Discovery,  disengaged  from  every  human  consider- 
bicn,  was,  therefore,  the  glorification  of  the  Eedeemer  and  the 
[xiiension  of  His  Church.  Historians  have  hitherto  left  this 
|ircumstance  unnoticed,  or  in  a  state  of  vague  confusion."  The 
*rotestant,  Arthur  Gilnian,  in  his  "History  of  the  American 
'eople,"  poetizes  on  a  well-worn  theme,  the  expression  of  the 
lets  of  the  case  having  been  given  by  the  other,  for  no  one 
m  l^now  so  well  as  a  Roman  Catholic  what  the  intentions  of 
Le  Holy  See  are  with  regard  to  tlie  United  States.  To  quote 
filman's  "words:  "Among  the  great  events  that  marked  the 
^orld's  revival  from  the  sleep  of  the  Dark  Ages,  none  was  more 
^markable  than  the  revelation  of  the  American  continent. 
JUL  the  moment  when  the  ship  of  Columbus  was  sighted  o^T 


02 


1  im: 


20  The  Icelandic  Discoverers  of  America; 


the  coast  of   Spain,  bearing  the  proofs  of  his  discovery,  the 
name  America  became  the  synonym  of  wealth,  of  adventure,  of 

freedom." '•'[''■-i-  "'"'■  .        .■  '■■■'■    •■■•--■'    v''.!-   ,■■;.-    .r;!^.:. 

There  is  not  the  slightest  warrant  for  coupling  the  words 
wealth,  adventure  (in  the  good  sense)  and  freedom  with  the 
name  of  Columbua  Sterility,  poverty,  slavery  have  invariably 
followed  in  the  wake  of  Bome  and  of  Spain.  They  would  have 
done  so  in  this  instance,  the  United  States  would  have  displayed 
the  features  of  Spanish  civilization,  had  it  not  been  for  the 
principles  of  freedom  the  Norsemen  infused  into  English  blood 
and  which  found  their  fullest  expression  in  the  American 
colonists,  leading  them  to  declare  independence.  But  the 
American  Bepublio  has  always  been  divided  against  itself :  the 
northern  states  respected  freedom,  defended  it  for  themselves 
and  others;  the  southern  states  advocated  slavery  and  fought 
for  its  preservation;  we  have  the  freedom-loving  North  and 
slavery-worshipping  Spain  again  typiSed  in  Boston  and  New 
Orleans. 

Samuel  Laing  sees  clearly  that  these  are  the  only  two  forces 
that  have  been  at  work  in  Europe,  for  spiritual  and  temponal 
supremacy,  and  he  embodies  one,  the  enslaving  force,  in  the 
Romans,  and  the  other,  the  freeing  force,  in  the  Scandinavians. 
His  words  convey  the  whole  truth  of  the  situation  as  regards 
the  past :  "  Two  nations  only  have  left  permanent  impressions 
of  their  laws,  civil  polity,  social  arrangements,  spirit,  and 
character  on  the  civilized  communities  of  modem  times — the 
Bomans,  and  the  handful  of  Northern  people  from  the  countries 
beyond  the  Elbe,  which  had  never  submitted  to  the  Roman 
yoke,  who,  issuing  in  small,  piratical  bands  from  the  5th  to  the 
10th  century,  under  the  names  of  Saxons,  Danes,  Northmen, 
plundered,  conquered  and  settled  on  every  European  coast  from 
the  White  Sea  to  Sicily."  What  impression  was  left  he  describes 
in  a  way  that  leaves  no  doubt :  "  Wheresoever  these  people  from 
be^ .  >ud'  the  pale  and  influence  of  the  old  Roman  empire,  and 


liiM; 


OR,  Honour  to  whom  Honour  is  Due.   2t 


of  the  later  church  empire  of  Rome,  either  settled,  mingled  or 
marauded,  they  have  left  permanent  traces  in  society,  of  their 
laws,  institutions,  character,  and  spirit.  Pagan  and  harbariau 
as  they  were,  they  seem  to  have  carried  with  them  something 
more  natural,  something  more  suitable  to  the  social  wants  of  man, 
than  the  laws  and  institutions  formed  under  the  Roman  power. 
What  traces  have  we  in  Britain  of  the  Romans  1  A  few  military 
roads,  and  doubtful  sites  of  camps,  posts,  and  towns— a  few 
traces  of  public  works,  and  all  indicating  a  despotic  military 
occupation  of  the  country,  and  none  a  civilized  condition  of  the 
mass  of  the  inhabitants— alone  remain  in  England  to  tell  the 
world  that  here  the  Roman  power  flourished  during  4GC  years." 
There  was  thus  a  despotic  military  occupation  of  the  country ; 
[that  there  was  a  despotic  spiritual  occupation  of  the  mind 
follows  as  a  matter  of  course  :  "  The  history  of  modern  civi- 
lization resolves  itself,  in  reality,  into  the  history  of  the  moral 
[influence  of  these  two  nations.  All  would  have  been  Roman 
[in  Europe  at  this  day  in  principle  and  social  arrangement — 
ilurope  would  have  been,  like  Russia  or  Turkey,  one  vast  den 
[of  slaves,  with  a  few  rows  in  its  amphitheatre  of  kingp,  ndbles, 
md  churchmen,  raised  above  the  dark  mass  of  humanity  beneath 
them,  if  three  boats  from  the  north  of  the  Elbe  had  not  landed 
^n  Ebbsfleet,  in  the  Isle  of  Thanet,  1400  years  ago,  and  been 
followed  by  a  succession  of  similar  boat  expeditions  of  the  same 
jeople,  marauding,  conquering,  and  settling,  during  600  years, 
Tiz.  from  449  to  1066.  All  that  men  hope  for  of  good  govem- 
lent  and  future  improvement  in  their  physical  and  moral  con- 
lition — all  that  civilized  men  enjoy  at  this  day  of  civil,  religious, 
^nd  political  liberty — the  British  constitution,  representative 
sgislature,  the  trial  by  jury,  security  of  property,  freedom  df 
lind  and  person,  the  influence  of  public  opinion  over  the  con- 
[uct  of  public  aflUirs,  the  Reformation,  the  liberty  of  the  press, 
le  spirit  of  the  age — all  that  is  or  has  been  of  value  to  man  in 
lodern  times  as  a  member  of  society  either  in  Europe  or  in 


32    The  Icelandic  Discoverers  of  America; 


"I  I 


»" 


America,  may  be  traced  to  the  spark  left  'burning  npon  oar 
shorea  by  these  Northern  barbarians." 

A  strong  and  eloquent  statement  this,  which  should  be 
written  in  letters  of  fire  in  every  American  heart,  to  inspire 
them  with  deep  gratitude  to  their  true  ancestors — ancestors 
which  England,  as  a  nation,  has  never  honoured  properly, 
wherefore  the  duty  has  devolved  upon  Americans,  who,  being 
more  nearly  allied  to  the  Norsemen  in  soul-qualities,  can  alone 
understand  them  and  appreciate  them  as  they  deserve.  That 
they  were  the  first  Europeans  who  landed  on  American  shores 
was  pregnant  with  good  to  us ;  this  made  "the  name  America 
the  synonym  of  wealth,  of  adventure,  of  freedom,"  and  not  the 
false  tidings  borne  by  Columbus  to  Spain  of  a  discovery  of 
which  he  would  have  been  incapable  but  for  stolen  infor- 
mation. 

And  the  other  force,  which  we  can  best  recognize  under  th^ 
name,  Momet  what  had  it  accomplished  t  Let  Dr.  Felix  Oswald 
tell :  "  A  thousand  years'  interregnum  of  science,  Faith  usurping 
the  throne  of  Reason,  every  branch  of  human  knowledge 
withered  by  the  poison  of  supematuralism,  literary  activity 
limited  to  the  production  of  homilies  and  miracle-legends^ 
education  devoted  to  the  suppression  of  all  natural  instincts, 
and  the  substitution  of  submissive  belief  for  the  love  of  truth 
i^d  free  inquiry.  Decadence  of  the  fine  arts,  natural  science 
merged  in  a  deluge  of  superstition."  I  doubt  if  in  the  whole 
range  of  literature  could  be  found  a  more  accurate  summing- 
up  of  the  work  wrought  by  these  two  forces  than  that  pre- 
sented by  these  authors.  Dr.  Oswald  insists,  and  with 
right,  that  "the  misery  of  the  Middle  Ages  was  due, 
not  to  the  supernatural,  but  to  the  anii-natural,  tendency 
of  the  Christian  religion,"  affirming,  most  truly,  that  "the 
pagan  gods  were  the  deified  powers  of  nature,  the  patrons  of 
mariners,  shepherds,  and  husbandmen,"  while  "  the  Christian 
gods  were  the  deified  enemiea  of  nature."    The  evil|  as  he 


OR,  Honour  to  whom  Honour  is  Due.  23 


shows,  reached  appalling  proportions,  for  "  on  the  altar  of  her 
anti-natural  idol,  the  Christian  Church  has  sacrificed  the  lives 
of  eighteen  millions  of  the  noblest  and  bravest  of  our  fellow- 
His  great  work,  "  The  Secret  of  the  East,"  is  a  complete 


men 

revelation  of  the  hideous  results  of  this  rule  of  darkness  falsely 
called  "  the  light  of  Christianity."  "  Has  the  rule  of  the 
Church,"  he  asks,  "  furthered  the  moral  progress  of  the  forty 
generations  whose  wisest,  manliest,  noblest,  and  bravest  men 
were  systematically  weeded  out,  to  enforce  the  survival  of 
idiots  and  hypocrites?  For  thirteen  centuries,  the  rack,  the 
stake,  and  the  cross  were  leagued  against  nature  and  mankind.' 
Hallam  more  than  condrms  Oswald's  assertions :  "  A  cloud  of 
ignorance  overspread  the  whole  face  of  the  Church,  hardly 
broken  by  a  few  glimmering  lights,  who  owe  almost  the  whole 
of  their  distinction  to  the  surrounding  darkness.  ...  I  cannot 
conceive  of  any  state  of  society  more  adverse  to  the  intellectual 
improvement  of  mankind  than  one  which  admitted  no  middle 
line  between  dissoluteness  and  fanatical  mortifications.  .  .  .  No 
original'writer  of  any  merit  arose ;  and  learning  may  be  said  to 
have  languished  in  a  region  of  twilight  for  the  greater  part  of  a 
thousand  years.  ...  In  992,  it  was  asserted  that  scarcely  a 
single  person  was  to  be  found,  in  Eome  itself,  who  knew  the 
first  elements  of  letters.  Not  one  priest  of  a  thousand  in  Spain, 
about  the  age  of  Charlemagne,  could  address  a  common  letter  of 
salutation  to  another."      '>^::r,  ,  .ii;: 

Nor  was  this  all ;  not  content  with  debasing  and  enfeebling 
the  mind,  the  Romish  religionists  changed  the  very  face  of 
nature ;  this  was  to  be  made  as  arid  and  barren  as  the  soul — 
the  Christian  revision  of  the  Creator's  work,  for,  as  Oswald 
says,  "the  dogmas  of  the  Christian  Church  have  cost  the  world 
three  million  square  miles  of  lands,  which  once  were  the  garden 
spots  of  this  earth,  but  which  have  been  turned  into  deserts  by 
the  neglect  of  rational  agriculture  and  the  influence  of  a  creed 
which  laboured  to  withdraw  the  attention  of  mankind  from 


V'i 

Mi  i 


n 


^1 


S4   The  'Icelandic  Discoverers  of  America  ; 


i/'ii 


■ecular  to  post-mortem  concernments."  In  support  of  this 
statement  he  cites  Professor  Marsh:  "The  fairest  and  fruit- 
fullest  portions  of  the  Boman  Empire,  precisely  that  portion  of 
terrestrial  surface,  in  short,  which  about  the  commencement  of 
the  Christian  era,  was  endowed  with  the  greatest  superiority  of 
soil,  climate  and  position,  which  had  been  carried  to  the  liighest 
pitch  of  physical  improvement — is  now  completely  exhausted 
of  its  fertility.  A  territory  larger  than  all  Europe,  the  abun- 
dance of  which  sustained  in  bygone  centuries  a  population 
scarcely  inferior  to  that  of  the  whole  Christian  world  at  the 
present  day,  has  been  entirely  withdrawn  from  human  use,  or, 
at  best,  is  thinly  inhabited.  .  .  .  There  are  regions  where  the 
operation  of  causes,  set  in  action  by  man,  has  brought  the  iao^  df 
the  earth  to  a  desolation  almost  as  complete  as  that  of  the  moon; 
and  though  within  that  brief  space  of  time  which  we  call  'the 
^historical  period,'  they  are  known  to  have  been  covered  with 
luxuriant  woods,  verdant  pastures  and  fertile  meadows,  they 
•are  now  too  far  deteriorated  to  be  reclaimable  by  man,  nor  can 
they  become  again  fitted  for  his  use  except  through  grel&t  geolo- 
'gical  changes,  or  other  agencies,  over  which  we  have  no  control 
•  .  .  Another  era  of  equal  improvidence  would  reduce  this 
earth  to  such  a  condition  of  impoverished  productiveness  as  to 
threaten  the  depravation,  barbarism,  and,  perhaps,  even  the 
•extinction  of  the  human  species." 

But,  reply  many  Americans,  with  "that  sublime  trust  in  the 
grand  destiny  of  the  American  people"  for  which  they  are 
'noted,  this  could  never  happen  in  the  United  States ;  Boman 
Catholics  here  are  not  what  they  are  in  Italy  or  Spain  ;  the 
Bomish  Church  itself  is  becoming  permeated  with  the  spirit  of 
>our  American  institutions,  of  freedom.  This  pleasant  illusion, 
which,  carried  one  degree  farther,  would  invite  the  contagion  of 
the  spiritual  Black  Death  that  ravaged  Europe  for  a  thousand 
years,  and  left  the  taint  of  the  foul  disease  in  the  mental 
•organism  of  all  descendants — has  blinded  American  eyes  to  the 


OR,  Honour  to  whom  Honour  is  Due.     25 


in  the 

jy  are 


faot  that  Eoman  Catholicism  has  already  made  terrible  strides 
in  the  Eepablic,  that  the  freedom  of  American  institutions  has 
incalculably  favoured  its  advance,  saving  it  the  trouble  of 
forcing  its  way  with  the  sword,  as  it  was  compelled  to  do  in 
Europe ;  it  is  securing  a  bloodless  victory,  and  its  exultation, 
although  perhaps  premature,  is  not  altogether  unfouaded.  This 
insolent  power  has  certainly  met  with  no  rebuke  from  the 
people  or  Government  of  the  United  States,  not  the  slightest 
check ;  its  Jesuits  have  not  been  expelled,  its  monasteries  and 
ecclesiastical  establishments  have  not  been  forbidden,  nor  its 
parochial  schools  closed ;  it  enjoys  the  absolute  freedom  of  the 
press,  and  its  editors  can  boast  openly  of  their  speedy  appro- 
priation of  the  American  Bepublic  for  the  seat  of  Bomish 
despotism ;  the  ancient  Greeks,  the  Moors,  the  Albigenses,  the 
Saxons,  the  Scandinavians,  all  made  resistance,  the  citizens  of 
the  United  States  make  none.  How  shall  the  Roman  Catholics 
construe  this,  if  not  favourably  to  their  plans  1  Freedom  to 
them  is  valueless  from  the  American  point  of  view,  as  the 
atmosphere  that  will  alone  admit  of  the  growth  of  a  great  and 
powerful  nation,  founded  in  the  highest  principles  of  human 
right  and  justice,  but  inestimable  as  affording  them  the  fullest 
opportunity  to  undermine  this  nation,  and  blast  not  only  its 
hopes,  but  the  hopes  of  the  world.  Seizing  the  United  States, 
the  Church  of  Rome  can  mock  and  defy  all  the  states  of  Europe 
that  have  always  prevented  its  complete  temporal  sovereignty. 
The  progress  it  has  already  made  is  by  no  means  to  be  despised ; 
as  a  writer  in  the  "Boston  Transcript"  laments  :  *'  We  look  with 
dismay  upon  the  appearance  in  our  streets  of  fat,  heavy-eyed 
priests  and  coifed  nuns;"  from  having  had,  at  the  end  of  the 
last  century — to  quote  some  statistics  given  by  an  orthodox 
Russian  author  in  his  book  entitled  "  Roman  Catholicism  in 
the  United  States"— 1950  churches  for  3,500,000  people,  or 
one  church  for  every  1 700  persons,  in  1870  there  were  over 
72,000  churches  for  38,000,000,  or  one  church  for  every  629 


26    xftE  Icelandic  Discoverers  of  America; 


;,,,|l|! 
'■f,  -' 


persons;  "so  while  the  population  increased  eleven  times  the 
number  of  churches  increased  thirty-seven  times;"  he  says 
with  satisfaction,  and  Americans  must  admit,  though  with 
horror,  that  "the  growth  of  Catholicism  in  the  United  States 
for  the  last  hundred  years,  has  been,  indeed,  bewildering ;  in 
17,76  there  were  in  that  country  about  25,000  Catholics  all 
told,  or  1-1 20th  part  of  all  the  inhabitants,  and  now  there  are 
over  7,000,000  of  them,  or  one-seventh  of  the  whole  population." 

The  words  of  Froude  should  be  read  by  those  who  are  not 
afraid  to  risk  a  further  experiment :  "  The  New  World  was 
first  offered  to  the  holders  of  the  old  traditions.  They  were  the 
husbandmen  first  chosen  for  the  new  vineyard,  and  blood  and 
desolation  were  the  only  fruits  which  they  reared  upon  it.  In 
their  hands  it  was  becoming  a  kingdom,  not  of  God,  but  of  the 
devil,  and  a  sentence  of  blight  went  out  against  them  and 
against  their  works.  How  fatally  it  has  worked,  let  modern 
Spain  and  Spanish  America  bear  witness." 

But  Roman  Catholicism  undergoes  a  change  on  American 
soil,  still  persist  those  who  have  unlimited  faith  in  the  passive 
influence  of  American  ideas;  an  Asiatic  serpent,  fostered  in 
Indian  Buddhism,  the  source  of  religious  or  Christian  pessimism, 
as  Oswald  affirms,  will  have  all  his  venom  extracted,  his  pro- 
pensity to  coil  and  crush,  by  simply  basking  in  a  well-cultivated 
American  garden  or  twining  around  its  fruit-trees.  But  "  it 
has  long  been  the  proud  but  most  unholy  boast  of  the  Roman 
Church  that  she  never  changes,"  writes  H.  F.  Barnard  in  the 
"  Index,"  and  then  goes  to  the  case  in  point :  "  Papa]  indulgence 
was  the  rock  on  which  the  Christian  Church  split  three  hundred 
and  fifty  years  ago ;  yet  on  this  same  question  of  indulgence, 
Rome  has  not  altered  one  jot  or  tittle  of  her  pretensions,"  which 
he  demonstrates  by  extracts  from  the  "Messenger  of  St. 
Joseph's  Union,"  to  all  the  members  of  which  Papal  indulgence 
has  been  granted  by  Pope  Leo  XIIL,  and  which  advertises  the 
sale  of  masses  at  one  dollar  each,  thereby  doing  a  thriving 


i^   .il; 


asm, 
pro- 
bated 
"it 
)man 

the 
tence 
Idred 
mce, 
[hich 

St. 
tence 

the 
Iving 


OR.  Honour  to  whom  Honour  is  Due.  27 

trade.  A  few  extracts  taken  from  the  pastoral  published  at  the 
fourth  Provincial  Council  at  Cincinnati,  March  19th,  1882,  will 
show  in  how  far  the  Eomish  Church  has  changed  its  tenets 
or  adopted  American  habits  of  thought.  "  A  systematic  and 
combined  effort,  both  in  Europe  and  America,  is  being  made 
to  secularize  religion,  and  to  substitute  for  God  and  religion 
science  and  material  progress.  It  is  claimed  that  all  men  are 
'free  and  equal,'  and  under  that  cry  religion  and  law  are 
assailed.  .  .  .  Nor  are  all  men  equal. .  . .  This  is  in  the  nature  of 
things  and  must  be,  as  it  is  ordained  by  God  that  some  shall 
rule  and  some  shall  be  ruled.  Those  who  are  appointed  to  rule 
have  certain  rights  that  subjects  have  not.  Hence  kings  and 
magistrates,  and  bishops  and  priests,  are  appointed  to  rule ;  if  to 
rule,  then  they  are  above  those  whom  they  rule.  .  . .  With  the 
popular  doctrine  that  all  men  are  equal,  there  is  steadily 
growing  the  doctrine  that  '  all  power  is  from  the  people,'  and 
that  they  who  exercise  authority  in  the  state  do  not  exercise  it 
as  their  own,  but  as  intrusted  to  them  by  the  people,  and  upon 
this  condition — that  it  may  be  recalled  by  the  will  of  the  same 
people  by  whom  it  was  confided  to  them.  This  is  not  Catholic 
doctrine,  nor  is  it  the  doctrine  of  the  Scriptures,  which  teach : 
'  By  me  kings  reign  ...  by  me  princes  rule,  and  the  mighty 
decree  justice.'  '  Give  ear,  you  that  rule  the  people, ...  for 
power  is  given  to  you  by  God,  and  strength  by  the  Most  High.* 
*  Let  every  soul  be  subject  to  the  higher  powers,  for  there  is  no 
power  but  from  God;  and  those  that  are,  are  ordained  of 
God.' . . .  There  is  also  a  growing  disposition  among  a  class  of 
Catholics  to  teach  that  in  some  things  the  priest  receives  his 
power  from  the  people.  There  is  also  a  disposition  to  draw  lines 
and  to  confine  the  priest  within  limits  that  neither  God  nor 
religion  can  permit.  The  priest  is  not  appointed  by  the  people, 
nor  does  he  receive  his  power  from  the  people.  He  receives  his 
power  from  God,  and  the  people  are  commanded  to  seek  the 
law  from  his  lips,  *  for  the  priest's  lips  should  keep  knowledge.' 


% 


i' "  I 


II ' 


I  ( 


28   The  Icelandic  Discoverers  op  America; 


i 


Sill'  >i 


*  He  that  hears  you  hears  me,'  says  Christ,  speaking  of  His 
priests,  *  and  he  that  despises  you  despises  me.'  '  Go  teach ' 
are  words  that  leave  no  doubt  as  to  the  right  of  priests  to 
teach,  or  the  duty  of  the  people  to  listen.  .  .  .  Governments  and 
States  and  peoples  are  alike  subject  to  the  law  of  God  equally 
as  the  humblest.  Governments  have  no  more  right  to  do  wrong 
than  individuals.  *  All  power  comes  from  God,'  and  the  Church 
is  the  witness  and  guardian  of  revelation,  as  well  as  the  inter- 
preter thereof.  From  her  the  world  must  learn  the  law  of  God, 
and  the  law  of  man  must  ever  bo  subordinated  to  the  law  of 
God.  It  is  untrue  to  assert  that  *  all  power  comes  from  the 
people.'  *  All  power  com ep  from  God,'  by  whom  princes  rule, 
and  the  mighty  decree  justice." 

It  will  not  do  to  leave  these  tedious  injunctions  that  have 
been  reiterated  since  the  second  century,  unchanged  and  un- 
amended, without  including  those  relative  to  the  school-question, 
the  most  serious  annoyance  the  Roman  Catholics  have  to  con- 
tend with  in  the  United  States  :  "  Religion  must  form  a  part  of 
the  education  of  the  child.  Education  without  religion  may 
have  the  glitter  of  science,  but  it  will  not  have  the  essence  of 
virtue.  Virtue  must  be  the  foundation  of  education,  but 
religion  is  the  foundation  of  virtue;  hence  we  liold  religion 
must  form  a  part  of  the  daily  education  of  the  child,  and  must 
be  taught  co-ordinately  with  science  and  the  cognate  branches. 
Deeply  impressed  with  the  necessity  of  training  Catholic 
children  in  the  faith  of  their  fathers,  whilst  waiting  a  change 
in  the  public-school  system,  in  which  our  just  rights  as  citizens 
shall  be  recognized  and  conceded,  there  remains  to  us  but  to 
appeal  to  the  generosity  of  our  ever  faithful  people  to  continue 
to  support  our  Catholic  schools.  We  know  too  well  how  heavy 
the  burden  is,  and  how  unjust  it  is  that  Catholics  are  forced  to 
sujjport  their  own  schools  and  at  the  same  time  be  taxed  to 
support  a  public-school  system  from  which,  for  conscience  sake, 
they  can  receive  no  benefit.     Wherever,  therefore,  throughout 


m 


Iigion 


)izens 
ut  to 
itinue 
heavy 
ed  to 
ed  to 
sake, 
ghout 


OR,  Honour  to  whom  Honour  is  Due.     29 

the  province,  Catholic  schools  are  not  yet  established,  pastors 
will  use  all  diligence  that  they  be  established,  being  ever 
mindful  of  the  instructions  sent  by  the  Holy  See  to  the 
American  bishops  to  see  that  Catholic  schools  be  everywhere 
established,  and  that  in  them  not  only  science  and  profane 
knowledge  be  taught,  but  also  religion,  the  queen  of  all  sciences. 
It  is,  therefore,  our  wish,  that  the  church  and  school  go  hand 
in  hand ;  that  where  the  one  is,  there  also  shall  the  other  be." 

The  tendency  of  all  this  is  as  plain  as  its  meaning.  There  is 
the  denial  that  the  principles  embodied  in  the  American  Con- 
stitution are  right ;  the  people  are  not  free  and  equal ;  power  is 
not  from  the  people ;  there  should  not  be  self-rule,  but  "  kings 
and  magistrates,  and  bishops  and  priests  are  appointed  to  rule ; " 
secular  government  and  secular  education  are  utterly  obnoxious 
to  the  Romish  Church,  and  it  is  bound  by  all  the  laws  of  its  own 
organization  to  eradicate  them.  The  members  of  this  Church 
are  consequently  the  only  class  of  emigrants  to  the  United  States 
who  are  not  loyal  to  the  institutions  of  the  country  they  livb  in, 
w^ho  do  not  in  any  sense  assimilate  with  the  principles  of  these 
institutions;  under  the  guise  of  American  citizens  they  are  actually 
traitors,  only  waiting  for  the  moment  when  they  can  deal  a 
death-blow  to  the  government  and  rulers  their  mediaeval  super- 
stition has  taught  them  to  abhor.  Their  arrogance  inflated  and 
buoyed  up  by  the  remembrance  of  the  historical  fact  that  the 
power  to  which  alone  they  yield  allegiance  was  able  to  destroy 
the  eivilization  of  ancient  Greece,  that  of  the  Moors,  to  sap  the 
strength  of  Scandinavia  and  cause  its  decline,  to  reduce  all 
Europe  to  a  state  of  misery  and  barbansm  that  lasted  for  a 
thousand  years,  they  regard  the  repetition  of  this  atrocious  work 
in  the  United  States  as  an  easy  task,  and  set  about  it  years  ago 
with  the  confidence  and  precision  that  distinguished  their 
European  efforts.  Conscious  as  Americans  are  of  their  own 
strength,  the  power  of  their  own  nation,  they  should  not  under- 
estimate the\  strength  of  their  insidious  foe,  nor  foiget  that  thit 


il] 


n-  ■ 

f-   ■  r 

1:  ,  ' 


m 


it 


t'l  I 


30    The  Icelandic  Discoverers  of  America  ; 


mi 


foe  vanquished  the  Greeks,  the  Saxons,  the  Moon,  the  Alhi- 
genses,  the  French  Protestants,  the  Scandinavians,  getting  the 
better  through  their  craft  and  hellish  devices — never  through 
legitimate  or  honest  means — of  whole  communities  and  nations 
"who  cherished  advanced  thoughts,  republican  principles,  who  were 
free-minded,  enlightened  and  cultivated.  The  history  of  Europe 
does  not  show  an  even  and  harmonioiis  development,  Christianity 
orBomanism  succeeding  a  state  of  greater  barbarism  and  gradually 
amelioratinghuman conditions, butavioleutsubstitution of  barbar- 
ism for  the  civilization  and  enlightenment  it  ruthlessly  quenched. 
All  of  these  highly  civilized  races  struggled  manfully  for  their 
existence,  and  in  the  case  of  the  Scandinavians,  offered  five 
hundred  years  of  determined  opposition  to  the  demoniac  legions 
of  the  Church  ;  but  Americans  make  no  resistance  whatsoever ; 
they  even  praise  the  vampyre  that  has  fastened  upon  them,  as 
manifest  from  an  editorial  in  the  "  Boston  Transcript,"  headed 
"A  Boston  Cardinal,"  in  which  these  words  appear:  "None 
the  less  should  our  fathers,  brought  up  as  they  had  been  to 
abominate  the  Scarlet  Woman,  be  credited  with  tolerance  in 
aiding  the  little  flock  of  Catholics  to  find  shelter  and  comfort 
and  to  wax  strong.  The  history  of  the  Church  in  this  city  is 
one  of  the  most  interesting  chapters  in  our  annals.  It  is 
interesting,  not  only  as  all  religious  experiences  must  l)e  to  all 
thinking  men,  but  as  showing  a  great  social  change  which  has 
been  working  on  our  people.  The  Roman  Catholic  Church  to- 
day is  great,  powerful,  flourishing,  and  perfectly  organized  in 
our  midst,  and  yet  it  is  but  little  over  eighty  years  since  the  old 
cathedral  was  dedicated,  and  it  is  but  seventy-five  since  the  first 
Bishop  of  Boston  received  his  consecration." 

In  the  nature  of  things  the  Romish  power  will  work  thus 
quietly  and  peaceably  only  for  a  limited  space  of  time.  The 
period  of  gentle  and  persuasive  measures  has  obviously  been 
protracted  in  the  United  States  by  reason  of  the  unprecedented 
success  that  attended  the  manoeuvres  of  the  Mother  Church,  so 


£'''l'!i. 


m 


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,  Albi- 

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itianity 
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•  OR,  Honour  to  whom  Honour  is  Due.   31 

strangely  facilitated  by  the  un8U8f)ecting  attitude  of  Americans. 
Were  they  really  so  republican-minded,when  they  thus  permitted 
the  advance  of  the  most  monarchical  of  dominions  1  But  Mr. 
Gladstone,  in  his  "  Rome  and  the  Newest  Fashions  in  Religion/' 
draws  attention  to  the  fact  that  another  policy,  the  one  that  has 
proved  so  efficacious  heretofore,  is  contemplated,  in  Europe,  if 
not  in  America  :  *'  My  propositions  then,  as  they  stood,  are 
these: 

"  1.  That  Rome  has  substituted  for  the  proud  boast  of 
i     temper  eadem,  a  policy  of  violence  and  change  in  faith. 

"2.  That  she  has  refurbished  and  paraded  anew  every 

rusty  tool  she  was  fondly  thought  to  have  disused. 

;    "3.  That  no  one  can  now  become  her  convert  without 

renouncing  his  moral  and  mental  freedom,  and  placing  his 
■    !    civil  loyalty  and  duty  at  the  mercy  of  another. 

"  4.  That  she  (Rome)  has  equally  repudiated  modem 

thought  and  ancient  history." 
Furthermore  he  says  :  "  It  leads  many  to  the  painful  and 
revolting  conclusion  that  there  is  a  fixed  purpose  among  the 
secret  inspirers  of  Roman  joiicy  to  pursue, by  the  road  of  force, 
upon  the  arrival  of  any  favourable  opportunity,  the  favourite 
project  of  re- erecting  the  terrestrial  throne  of  the  Popedom,  even 
if  it  can  only  be  re-erected  on  the  ashes  of  the  city  and  amidst 
the  whitening  bones  of  the  people."  In  confirmation  of  this 
horrible  probability,  the  author  cites  the  words  of  Cardinal 
Manning,  in  which  the  intention  stands  plainly  revealed,  at  the 
League  of  St.  Sebastian,  on  the  20th  of  January,  1874 :  "  Now, 
when  the  nations  of  Europe  have  revolted,  and  when  they  have 
dethroned,  as  far  as  men  can  dethrone,  the  Vicar  of  Jesus  Christ, 
and  when  they  have  made  the  usurpation  of  the  Holy  City  a 
part  of  international  law — when  all  this  has  been  done,  there  is 
only  one  solution  of  the  difficulty — a  solution,  I  fear,  impending 
—and  that  is  the  terrible  scourge  of  continental  war :  a  war, 
which  will  exceed  the  horrors  of  any  of  the  wars  of  iho  ^"^( 


li 


32    The  Icelandic  Discoverers  of  America; 


1 51' 


^t 


11 


empire.  I  do  not  see  how  this  can  be  averted.  And  it  is  my 
firm  conviction,  that,  in  spite  of  all  obstacles,  the  Vicar  of  Jesus 
Chris-twill  be  put  again  in  his  own  rightful  place."  Nor  is  this 
all.  "The  Catholic  Church,"  bo  says,  "cannot  be  silent^  it 
cannot  hold  its  peace ;  it  cannot  cease  to  preach  the  doctrines  of 
Revelation,  not  only  of  the  Trinity  and  of  the  Incarnation,  but 
likewise  of  the  Seven  Sacraments,  and  of  the  Infallibility  of 
the  Church  of  God,  and  of  the  necessity  of  Unity,  and  of  the 
Sovereignty,  both  spiritual  and  temporal,  of  the  Holy  See." 

Th^re  is  still  another  threat,  couched  in  the  following  words : 
"  If  Christian  princes  and  their  laws  deviate  from  the  law  of 
Gol,  the  Church  has  authority  from  God  to  judge  of  that  devia- 
tion, and  by  all  its  paioera  to  enforce  the  correction  of  that 
departuio  from  justice. 

It  is  more  than  apparent  that  the  sins  of  the  American  Ee- 
public  must  far  outweigh  those  of  any  Christian  prince  in 
Europe ;  there  is  not  a  point  in  which  the  Republican  and  the 
Roman  Catholic  code  coincide;  what  then  is  the  retribution 
that  the  Holy  See  will  mete  out  to  Americans,  when  the  time 
comes  9    And  why  is  the  hour  of  retribution  delayed  1 

Coming  events  hinge  on  the  stand  taken  by  the  United  States 
on  the  Columbus  question.  J.  J.  Barry  may  be  considered  to 
interpret  literally  the  views  of  his  Church  when  he  says  that 
*'  the  first  object  of  the  Discovery,  disengaged  from  every  human 
consideration,  was,  therefore,  the  glorification  of  the  Redeemer 
and  the  extension  of  His  Church."  I  have  quoted  these  words 
before,  but  they  cannot  be  too  forcibly  impressed  upon  the  mind. 
The  object  was  not  impeded  by  any  uncertainty  with  regard  to 
the  disGC Tery,  for  it  was  not  +0  be  a  discovery,  it  was  simply  to 
be  the  claiming  of  lands  before  discovered  and  to  which  the 
route  had  been  marked  out.  The  Church  as  usual  had  chosen 
an  infallible  method.  It  leaves  experimenting  to  scientists. 
"Washington  Irving  describee  the  precipitate  haste  with  which 
Pope  and  sovereigns  took  possessjou  of  the  now  territory,  pro« 


OR,  Honour  to  whom  Honour  is  Due.  33 


destined  for  Papal  rule  :  "  In  the  midst  of  f-eir  rejoicings,  the 
Spanish  sovereigns  lost  no  time  in  caking  every  measure  neces- 
sary to  secure  their  new  acquisitions  .  .  .  took  the  immediate 
precaution  to  secure  the  sanction  of  the  Pope  (Alexander  VI.) 
,  .  a  pontiff  whom  some  historians  have  stigmatized  with  every 
vice  and  crime  that  could  disgrace  humanity,"  The  records  of 
his  crimes  are  too  revolting  to  read ;  debauchery,  incest,  murder, 
robbery,  and  assassination  for  the  end  of  robbery,  distinguish  this 
monster's  life,  until  by  drinking,  by  mistake, some  of  the  poisoned 
wire  intended  for  nine  wealthy  cardinals  and  some  other  opu- 
lent persons  whom  he  had  invited  to  a  banquet,  the  career  of 
the  infamous  wretch  was  closed.  "The  present  discovery," 
continues  Irving,  "  was  a  still  greater  achievement "  (than  the 
con'^uest  of  Gvanada) ;  "it  was  the  fulfilment  of  one  of  the 
sublime  promises  to  the  Church  ;  it  was  giving  to  it  the  heathen 
for  an  inh^itance  and  the  uttermost  parts  of  the  earth  for  f, 
possession."  A  Bull  was  iss'^ed,  dated  May  2nd,  1493,  "  ceding 
to  the  Spanish  sovereigns  the  same  rights,  privileges,  and  in- 
dulgences in  respect  to  the  newly  discovered  region,  as  had  been 
accorded  to  the  Portuguese,  with  regard  to  their  African  dis- 
coveries, under  the  same  condition  of  planting  and  propagating 
the  Catholic  faith." 

sthe  American  Republic  disposed  to  consider  itself  tributary 
to  Spain  and  to  allow  these  Spanish  plans  to  be  carried  out  to 
the  letter  1  If  so,  it  has  but  to  accept  the  Spanish  and  Roman 
Catholic  version  of  the  discovery  and  suffei-  these  schemes  to 
blot  out  the  Norse  discovery  of  America.  It  must  then  endow 
Columbus  with  all  his  prerogatives,  saintship  included,  and 
worship  his  memory.  It  would  be  such  a  glorious  thing  for  the 
United  States  to  be  under  the  charge  of  a  tutelar  saint,  to  have 
its  St.  Christopher,  as  Norway  had  its  St.  Olaf  Jind  l?weden  its 
St.  Birgitta,  after  they  became  Christianized  or  Romanized  ! 

But  as  this  response  to  Spanish  demands  does  not  lie  within 
the  range  of  human  probability,  what  is  the  alteniAtivet    Xo 


m% 


I  Am. 


34   The  IcfiLAiiDic  Discoverers  of  America; 


proclaim  the  fact  of  tiie  Norse  discovery  and  denounce  the 
Golumbian  one  as  a  deliberate  fraud  of  the  Church,  devised  for 
proselyting  purposes.  The  true  tendency  of  America  was  given 
M'hen  the  Norsemen  landed  on  its  shores  ;  it  was  a  good  augury 
for  the  future  nation,  for  these  were  brave,  free,  high-minded 
men,  men  of  a  race  who  had  planted  the  seeds  of  liberty  in 
many  a  state  of  Europe,  and  who  did  it  in  ♦'  's  case  unwittingly, 
from  the  mere  force  of  their  splendid  nationality.  '   '  '  '" 

Columbus,  the  bigoted  Boman  Catholic  adventurer,  who  fed 
his  ambition  and  greed  on  the  narratives  of  the  Norse  voyagep 
to  America,  read  secretly  in  Iceland,  strove  to  give  the  New 
World  the  opposite  tendency,  the  downward  tendency.  Which 
shall  prevail? 


J., .) 


«-%■-      % 


i? 


1 


OR,  Honour  to  whom  Honour  is  Due.     35 


j^i.l    1 .»      ;   '1    ') 


CHAPTER  n. 


»  ,r 

y\ 

'  ^U 

;    1    >  (, 

■,>■( 

.;j-;^ 

\ 

If 


THE  MANIFEST  DUTY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES  IN  THIS  QUESTION. 

That  deeply  interesting  work  by  William  and  Mary  Howitt, 
"  The  History  and  Romance  of  Northern  Europe,"  opens  with 
an  exclamation,  an  indignant  one :  "  Amongst  the  many 
wonders  of  this  world,  there  is  none  greater  than  the  blindness 
of  the  writers  of  this  and  other  countries  to  the  transcendent 
influence  of  the  blood  and  spirit  of  ancient  Scandinavia  on  the 
English  character."  In  reading  up  on  this  subject,  Mallet's 
"  Northern  Antiquities  "  is  one  of  the  first  hooks  likely  to  full 
into  one's  hands — a  pioneer  work  in  itself— and  this  paragraph 
but  increases  the  amazement :  "  History  has  not  recorded  the 
annals  of  a  people  who  have  occasioned  greater,  more  sudden, 
or  more  numerous  revolutions  in  Europe  than  the  Scandinavians, 
or  whose  antiquities,  at  the  same  time,  are  so  little  known." 

So  little  knnvm  !  How  is  that  1  The  Scandinavians  have 
themselves  formed  the  early  history  of  nearly  every  nation  in 
Europe,  of  France,  Switzerland,  Russia,  England,  Scotland, 
besides  forming  the  entire  history  of  their  own  countries, — how 
can  one  study  English  history,  without  learning  all  about  these 
people,  or  French  history,  without  the  same  result, 'or  Scotch, 
or  Swiss,  or  Russian  ?  Were  their  achievements  really  so 
great,  as  the  world  takes  so  little  rote  of  them  ?  One  reads  a 
little  farther  in  this  French  work,  which  Bishop  Percy  whs 
enterprising  enough  to  put  into  English  in  1847,  and  strikes 
upon  the  following  passage  :   '•  It  is  easy  to  see  from  this  shoii 

D  2 


7*8 

.'if 


I'W 


Iff- 


J.v'   IT 


36    The  Icelandic  Discoverers  of  America; 

sketch,  how  greatly  the  nations  of  the  North  have  influenced  the 
ditferent  fates  of  Europe  ;  and  if  it  be  worth  while  to  trace  its 
revolutions  to  their  causes,  if  the  illuf^tration  of  its  institutions, 
of  its  police,  of  its  customs,  of  its  manners,  of  its  laws,  be  a 
subject  of  useful  and  interesting  inquiry  ;  it  must  be  allowed, 
that  the  antiquities  of  the  North,  that  is  to  say,  everything 
which  tends  to  make  us  acquainted  with  its  ancient  inhabitants, 
merits  a  share  in  the  attention  of  thinking  men.  But  to  render 
this  obvious  by  a  particular  example ;  is  it  not  well  known 
iJ.at  the  most  flourishing  and  celebrated  states  of  Europe  owe 
oiif  'V'/  to  the  Northern  nations,  whatever  liberty  they  now 
enjo)*,  jither  in  their  constitution,  or  in  the  spirit  of  their 
government  1 " 

Such  a  race  so  little  known?  There  must  be  some  mystery 
under  this !  What  do  English  authors  say  about  it  ]  How  do 
they  account  for  it  1  Grenville  Pigott,  in  his  "  Scandinavian 
Mythology,"  says  this  :  "  The  omission  of  any  serious  research 
into  the  religion  ol  Odin,  bynien  of  such  profound  learning,  as  was 
possessed  by  many  of  our  early  antiquarians,  may,  not  unnaturally, 
raipe  a  doubt  in  the  minds  of  some  of  the  degree  of  advantage  01 
interest  likely  to  result  from  an  inquiry  of  this  nature ;  but  a 
brief  account  of  the  circumstances  which  attendv^d  the  overthrow 
of  heathenism  and  the  introduction  of  Cliristianity  in  tliose 
countries,  where  the  Scandinavian  deities  were  cliietly  wor- 
shipped, may  otherwise  explain  the  cause  of  this  silence  on  a 
subject  so  likely  to  have  invited  earnest  inquiry." 

This  gives  one  an  inkling  of  the  cause,  to  be  sure,  but  y<>t  it 
remains  aji  incomprehensible  enigma  how  the  history  of  ihe 
most  remarkable  race  that  ever  trod  tlie  earth  could  have 
been  thus  buried  in  oblivion  !  And  tiiat  the  English  peoi)Ie 
know  nothing  about  them,  know  nothing  about  their  own 
ancestors,  that  is  the  strangest  part  of  it !  But  perhaps  it  is  a 
mistake,  the  neglect  of  this  subjiM-t  ascribed  to  Great  Britain  as 
well  *is  France,  only  a  casual  remark  by  one  or  two  authors  not 


:   6ft,  lt6N6tR  to  v^nou  llo^othi  is  fiuit     if 

■  J 

coj:!:ni7,iint  themselves  of  the  extent  of  English  or  Fr  nth 
rt'seuich.  Let  us  Jock  i'uiLher ;  Henry  Wheaton,  in  his 
"  History  of  the  Northmen,  or  Danes  and  Normans  from  the 
Earliest  Times  to  the  Conquest  of  England  by  William  of 
Normandy,"  makes  the  same  comment :  "  In  the  following 
attempt  to  illustrate  the  early  annals  of  the  North,  it  has  been 
the  writer's  aim  to  seize  the  principal  points  in  the  progress  of 
society  and  manners  in  this  remote  period,  which  havo  .»cen 
either  entirely  pas-ed  over,  or  barely  glanced  at  by  tho  nationjil 
historians  of  France  and  England,  but  which  throw  a  stron  j:  and 
clear  light  upon  the  affairs  of  Europe  during  the  middle  ages, 
and  illustrate  the  formation  of  the  great  monarchies  now 
constituting  some  of  its  leading  states."  Sa;muel  Laing  says  : 
"  The  social  condition,  institutions,  laws  and  literature  of  this 
vigorous,  influential  branch  of  the  race,  have  been  too  much 
overlooked  by  our  historians  and  political  philosophers."  In 
the  preface  to  his  translation  of  the  "  Heimskringla  "  he  gravely 
reveals  his  intention  of  stepping  in  and  repairing  the  serious 
omission  of  these  historians  and  philosophers,  of  averting  the 
consequences  of  their  intentional  neglect  of  certain  phases  and 
racial  characteristics,  the  concomitants  of  early  English  history, 
without  which  there  can  be  no  intelligent  reading  of  that 
history,  and  to  do  this  he  imposes  upon  himself  the  double 
work  of  clothing  in  English  dress  the  noble  work  by  Snorre 
Stiirleson,  an  historian,  who,  in  his  turn,  has  done  for  England 
what  England  has  failed  to  do  for  itself,  by  writing  hia 
'*  Chronicle  of  the  Kings  of  Norway,"  kings,  many  of  them,  who 
played  an  important  r61e  in  England  and  Scotland, — and  of 
composing  the  preliminary  dissertation,  a  perusal  of  which 
comprises  a  thorough  course  of  instruction  for  the  reader  in  thig 
almost  unknown  subject.  The  Rev.  Edmund  F.  Slufter, 
who  edited  Beamish's  translation  of  "  The  Voyages  of  the 
Northmen  to  America,"  pays  this  earnest  and  enthusiastic 
author  a  just  tribute  when  he  says  :  *'  Mr.  Laing's  dissertation  ia 


;.3S 


3     } 

m 


li 


'    !*■ 


f.  • 

!' 

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in 

f 

■1 

il!. 

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ji:::;! 
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fr»: 


38    The  Icelandic  Discoverers  of  America  ; 

a  th  'rnngh  discussion  of  the  whole  subject  of  Northern  literature 
and   history,  and  is  rendered  not  the  less  interesting  by  the 
frank  and  bold  manner  in  which  the  author  expresses  his  opinions 
on  some  important  questions."    The  words  in  the  preface  are 
these :    *'  It  is  of  importance  to  English  history  to  have,  in  the 
English  language,   the  means  of  judging  of  the  social  and 
intellectual  state — of  the  institutions  and  literature— of  a  people 
who  during  three  hundred  years  bore  an  important,  and  for  a 
great  portion  of  that  time  a  predominant  part,  not  merely  in  the 
wars,  but  in  the  legislation  of  England ;  who  occupied  a  very 
large  portion  of  the  country,  and  were  settled  in  its  best  lands 
in  such  numbers  as  to  be  governed  by  their  own,  not  by  Anglo- 
Saxon  laws;  and  who  undoubtedly  must  be  the  forefathers  of 
as  large  a  proportion  of  the  present  English  nation  as  the  Anglo- 
Saxons  themselves,  and  of  a  iauch  larger  proportion  than  the 
Normans.     These  Northmen  have  not  merely  been  the  fore- 
fathers of  the  people,  but  of  the  institutions  and  character  of 
the  nation,   to   an  extent  not   sufficiently  considered   by  our 
historians.  .  .  .  They  occupied    one-third  of  all  England    for 
many  generations,  under  their  own  Danish  laws ;  and  for  half  a 
century  nearly,  immediately  previous  to  the  Norman  Conquest, 
they  held  the  supreme  government  of  the  country."     Was  the 
supremacy  of  these  Northern  people  such  a  disgrace  to  England  that 
the  proud  nation  has  not  yet  recovered  from'  the  humiliation  of  it, 
and  cannot  endure  to  be  reminded  of  those  times  ?     Manifestly 
not.     Did  these  Scandinavians  so  retard  the  progress  of  the 
nation  that  the  people  of  modern  England  may  justly  hate  them 
for   the   injury  and  banish   them,    so   far  as   may   be,    from 
recollection?      Every   line  of  evidence  refutes    such  an  idea. 
But  aside  from  the  military  prowess  and  warlike  achievements 
of  this  race,  which  all  must  admit,  did  they  have  any  prestige 
that  entitles  them  to  a  place  in  English  literature,   in   English 
history,  in  the  grateful  memory  of  the  nation  1     In  his  words 
with  regard  to  Snorre  Sturlosou  and  the  subject-matter  of  his 


i^Si"! 


OR,  Honour  to  whom  Honour  is  Due.     39 


his 


remarkable  book,  Laing  settles  the  question  as  to  the  right  of 
this  race  to  a  place  in  English  literature  and  history  :  "  He  gives, 
too,  every  now  and  then,  very  natural  touches  of  character,  and 
scenes  of  human  action,  and  of  the  working  of  the  human  mind, 
wliich  are  in  truth  highly  dramatic.     In  rapid  narrative  of  the 
stirring  events   of   the  wild  Viking   life, — of  its  vicissitudes, 
adventures  and  exploits, — in  extraordinary,  yet  not  improbable 
incidents  and  changes  in  the  career  of  individuals, — in  touches 
true  to  nature, — and  in  the  admirable  management  of  his  story, 
in  which  episodes  apparently  the  most  unconnected  with  hie 
subject,   come  in  by  and  by  at  the   right  moment,  as   most 
essential  parts  of  it, — Snorre  Sturleson  stands  as  far  above  Villa 
Hardouin,    Joinville    or  Froissart,    as   they  stand   above  the 
monkish  chroniclers  who  preceded  them.     His  true  seat  in  the 
Valhalla  of  European  literature  is  on  the  same  bench — however 
great  the  distance  between — on  the  same  bench  with  Shakspeare, 
Carlyle,  and  Scott,    as    a  dramatic  historian ;    for  his  Harold 
Ha;irfager,   his    Olaf    Tryggvason,    his    Olaf    the    Saint,   are 
in  reality  great  historical  dramas,  in  which  these  wild,  energetic 
personages,  their  adherents  and  their  opponents,  are  presented 
working,  acting  and  speaking  before  you.  .  .  .  English  readers 
.  .  .  who  would  never  discover  from  the  pages  of  Hume,  or  of 
any  other  of  our  historical  writers,  that  the  Northern  pagans  who, 
in  the  ninth  and  tenth  centuries,  ravaged  the  coasts  of  Europe, 
sparing  neither  age,   sex    nor    condition — respecting    neither 
churches,  monasteries  nor  their  inmates — conquering  Normandy, 
Northumberland  (then  reckoned  with  East  Anglia,  equal  to 
one-third  of  all  England),  and,  under  Swein  and  Canute  the 
Great,  conquering  and  ruling  over  the  whole  of  England, — were 
a  people  ])Ossessing  any  literature  at  all,  or  any  laws,  institutions, 
aits,  or  manners  connecting  them   with  civilized  lile.      Our 
historians  have  confined  themselves  for  information  entirely  to 
the  records  and  chronicles  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  monks  .  .  .  and 
who    naturally   represent   them  as    the  most    ferocious   and 


1 ' : 


m: 


i 

m 


Hi 


40    The  Icelandic  Discovereiis  op  Amemca; 


1 


I  ,1!::,!. 

m 


ignorant    of    barbarians,   and   witbout  any  tincture   of    civi- 
lization." 

There  we  have  it ;  the  monks,  the  natural  enemies  of  the 
Scandinavians,  have  become  their  historians,  and  the  testimony 
of  those  whose  whole  office  has  been  to  proiiagate  such  versions 
only  of  facts  and  events  and  personal  action  as  pass  Church  censor- 
ship, has  been  universally  accepted.  Hume  does  indeed  imiL.te 
the  tone  of  these  monks,  whose  rage  will  never  cool  toward  the 
Northmen,  for  he  uniformly  speaks  of  them  as  "  those  swarms 
of  robbers,  which  the  fertile  North  thus  incessantly  poured 
forth  against  them,"  *'  the  piratical  Danes,"  "  those  ravagers," 
Ac,  &c.  ;  and  makes  one  representation  as  egregiously  false  as 
if  penned  under  monkish  dictation :  "  When  Alfred  came  to 
the  throne  he  found  the  nation  sunk  into  the  grossest  ignorance 
and  barbarism,  proceeding  from  the  continued  disorders  in  the 
government,  and  from  the  ravages  of  the  Danes.  The 
monasteries  were  destroyed,  the  monks  butchered  or  dispersed, 
their  libraries  burnt ;  and  thus  the  only  seats  of  erudition  in 
those  ages  were  totally  subverted." 

It  will  be  seen  further  on  that  there  was  one  "  seat  of  erudi- 
tion "  in  the  world  even  then,  that  preserved  the  true  history 
of  those  times  so  sacredly  as  to  place  it,  intact,  in  the  hands 
of  posterity,  for  effective  use  in  the  hour  when  the  records  so 
skilfully  manipulated  by  ecclesiastics  and  religious  intriguers 
would  be  discredited  and  proofs  of  the  fraud  required.  This 
true  history  was  preserved  in  the  heart  and  mind  of  the  people 
of  the  North,  ages  before  it  was  reduced  to  writing,  and  handed 
down  in  oral  tradition.  There  was  also  an  especial  class  of 
men  to  whose  keeping  all  annals  were  confided,  and  Laing's 
description  of  them,  here  quoted,  corresponds  with  that  of  many 
other  writers  on  the  subject :  '*  Before  the  introduction  or 
geneml  diffusion  of  writing,  it  is  evident  that  a  class  of  men 
whose  sole  occupation  was  to  commit  to  memory  and  preserve 
the   laws,  usages,  precedents  and    details  of    all  those  civil 


OR,  Honour  to  whom  Honour  is  Due.     41 


ClVl- 


affairs  and  rights,  and  to  whose  fidelity  in  relating  fonner  trans- 
actions implicit  confidence  could  be  given,  must  of  necessity 
have  existed  in  society — must  have  been  in  every  locality  ;  and 
from  the  vast  number  and  variety  of  details  in  every  district, 
and  the  great  interests  of  every  community,  must  have  bei-n 
esteemed  and  recompensed  in  proportion  to  their  importance  in 
such  a  social  state.     This  class  were  the  Skalds." 

This  paragraph,  in  itself,  contradicts  the  following  one  by 
Hume :  "  He  (Rollo)  collected  a  body  of  troops,  which  like 
that  of  all  those  ravagers,  was  composed  of  Norwegians, 
Swedes,  Frisians,  Danes,  and  adventurers  of  all  nations,  who 
being  accustomed  to  a  roving,  unsettled  life,  took  delight  in 
nothing  but  war  and  plunder."  As  well  could  one  say  of  the 
French  followers  of  Napoleon  who  accompanied  him  on  his 
wars  of  conquest,  that  "they  were  accustomed  to  a  roving, 
unsettled  life."  This  same  Rollo,  or  Rolf,  achieved  a  conquest 
in  France,  that  Napoleon  himself  need  not  have  been  ashamed 
of,  and  which  perhaps  conduced  to  make  the  French  people 
worthy  followers  of  the  great  general,  who  may  have  been 
inspired  to  heroic  efl'orts  by  the  accounts  of  his  illustrious  ])re- 
decessor,  William  the  Conqueror.  Rolf  left  Norway  for  the 
same  reason  as*  did  "the  nobility  and  people  of  the  highest 
civilization  "  who  emigrated  to  Iceland,  namely,  to  escape  from 
the  despotic  sway  of  Haruld  Hirfager,  and  neither  ho  and  his 
followers  nor  they  were  men  to  "  take  delight  in  notliing  but 
war  and  plunder."  * 

On  the  accuracy  of  the  old  Icelandic  annals  must  the 
thinkers  and  reformers  of  the  present  day  rely,  in  their  eflbrts 
to  disentangle  history  from  the  almost  hopeless  confusion  in 
which  the  aforesaid  monkish  chrouiclers  have  involved  it,  con- 
sequently it  is  extremely  gratifying  to  find  such  ample  corrobo- 
ration of  the  truthfulness  of  tlie  Icelandic  statements.  It  must 
never  be  lost  Irom  sight  that  these  were  o.  free  people,  bound  by 
uiiitlier  priest  uur  king,  and  consequently  not  forced  to  extol 


$ 

'  'I 

ii* 

m 


T   - 

f 


42    The  Icelandic  Discoverers  of  America; 


I 
I 


m. 


•'t 


J]  «i  11,:;'  "t* 


I 


i- 


the  representatives  of  either  ecclesiasticism  or  royalty;  they 
expressed  their  honest  opinion  in  every  instance.  Five 
hundred  years  of  Roman  Catholic  rule  had  destroyed  all  manhood 
and  independence  in  the  Anglo-Saxons ;  as  Laing  says,  "  the 
spirit,  character  and  national  vigour  of  the  old  Anglo-Saxon 
branch  of  this  people,  had  'evidently  become  extinct  under  Dhe 
influence  and  pressure  of  Ihe  Church  of  Rome  upon  the 
energies  of  the  human  mind."  But  the  Scandinavians  were 
as  yet  exempt ;  submission  and  all  cringing  to  authority  was 
unknown  to  them  :  there  was  no  cowardice  in  their  blood,  and 
hence  no  propensity  to  lie.  In  tb»)  io^^roduction  to  his  Heims- 
kringla,  Snorre  Sturleson,  the  celi^braled  man  "  to  ^hom,"  as 
Henry  Wheaton  declares,  "  his  country's  history  and  literature 
are  most  indebted,  and  whose  groat  historical  work  has  justly 
earned  for  him  the  title  of  the  Northern  Herodotus,"  affirms 
with  regard  to  the  truthfulness  of  the  Skalds :  "  For  although 
it  be  the  fashion  with  Scalds  to  praise  most  those  in  whose 
presence  they  are  standing,  yet  no  one  would  dare  to  relate  to 
a  chief  wkat  he  and  all  those  who  heard  it  know  to  be  false 
and  imaginary, — not  a  true  account  of  his  deeds  ;  because  that 
would  bo  mockery,  not  praise."  •  • 

In  the  twelfth  century  Iceland  possessed  considerable  collec- 
tions of  books,  and  for  a  long  time  one  common  language  was 
spoken  and  written  in  England,  Iceland,  Norway,  Sweden  and 
Denmark.  At  least  one-third  of  England  was  occupied  by  men 
from 'the  North,  the  land  was  ruled  by  Northern  laws,  Northern 
customs  and  usages  had  been  introduced.  Why  then  have 
not  modem  English  historians  sought  their  own  race,  their 
own  nationality,  their  own  language,  a?  the  right  sources 
of  historical  knowledge  of  England,  instead  of  the  old  Latin 
legends  which  are  the  nonsensical  relics  of  Roman  rule  in 
this  country  1  To  which  has  their  allegiance  been  due,  to 
which  has  it  spontaneously  been  given,  to  the  Roman  rule 
which  has  left  traces  on.^  of  "  a  despotic  military  occupation 


1: 


llili"; 


OR,  Honour  to  whom  Honour  is  Due.      43 

of  the  country,"  even  this  soon  obliterated,  or  to  the  Scancli< 
navian  rule,  which  has  made  England  the  proud  nation  that  it 
is  t  There  was  no  stint  of  historical  records  in  Iceland,  its 
literature  was  as  rich  and  varied  as  it  was  copious,  the  Latin 
lore  (1)  of  the  monks  could  in  no  sense  be  compared  with  it,  for, 
to  cite  Laing,  "during  the  five  centuries  in  which  the  Northmen 
were  riding  over  the  seas,  and  conquering  wheresoever  they 
landed,  the  literature  of  the  people  they  overcame  was  locked 
up  in  a  dead  language,  and  within  the  walls  of  monasteries. 
But  the  Northmen  had  a  literature  of  their  own,  rude  as  it 
was  ;  and  the  Anglo-Saxon  race  had  none,  none  at  least  belong- 
ing to  the  people." 

One  Icelandic  collection,  the  Amse-Magnaean  collection, 
"alone  contains  two  thousand  volumes  of  Icelandic  and  old 
Northern  manuscripts.  This  collection  was  made  by  Arnas 
Magnussen,  a  distinguished  antiquary,  between  1702  and  1712, 
and  is  named  in  honour  of  him."  (Vide  the  Earl  of  EUesmere's 
«  Guide  to  Old  Northern  Archseology."  London,  1848,  p.  12S.) 
Did  England  seek  to  gain  possession  of  these  treasures  1  Evi- 
dently not,  for  the  bulk  of  them  found  their  way  to  Den- 
mark. The  Earl  of  Ellesmere  remarks  :  "  But  it  is  not  merely 
for  the  Scandinavian  North  properly  so  called,  that  the  lan- 
guage and  literature  possess  a  national  significance,  which, 
throughout  a  certain  period,  extends  to  Russia,  as  also  to  Ger- 
many and  to  France,  .  .  .  but  doubtless  in  a  still  greater 
degree  to  the  British  Isles."  True  in  theory,  this  is  disproved 
in  practice,  for  the  English  nation  has  not  given  the  slightest 
evidence  that  it  considers  this  language  and  literature  to  possess 
a  national  significance  ;  its  learned  men  and  antiquarians  have 
disdained  to  pursue  this  line  of  rcseiirch,  the  people,  said  to  be 
most  proud  of  their  ancestry,  have  buried  all  recollection  of  the 
only  ancestors  of  theirs  of  whom  they  had  reason  to  be  proud ; 
a  land,  said  to  be  enlightened,  has  purposely  thrown  a  veil  of 
obscurity  over  its  own  most  brilliant  epochs  which  little  Den- 


f 


in       I 

r  ■  I; 
'il    i 


li-i 


1^ 


1: 

•nr 


44    The  Icelandic  Discoverers  of  America; 


mark  is  obliged  to  lift,  in  order  to  give  the  world  the  informa- 
tion to  which  it  is  rightfully  entitled  and  which  it  is  hopeless 
to  expect  from  England  !  English  tourists  go  to  Norway  tofiah 
and  to  hunt,  not  to  search  for  historical  links,  nor  to  gain  a 
better  knowledge  of  their  Viking  ancestry ;  the  museums  and 
fine  antiquarian  collections  in  Denmark  possess  as  little  at- 
tractions for  the  cultivated  travelling  public  of  England  as  the 
historical  relics  and  associations  of  Sweden.  But  sixty  hours 
by  sea  from  that  country,  one  that  would  naturally  be  sup- 
posed to  possess  an  infinite  charm  for  the  English,  what  with 
its  lovely  scenery,  its  castles  and  manors,  its  Viking  mounds  and 
burial-places,  its  exhumed  treasures, — a  priceless  illuminated 
scroll  of  English  history  as  well  as  Swedish, — the  English 
people  have  too  liltle  interest  to  go  there  !  In  England  Swedish 
literature,  togetlier  with  Norwegian  and  Danish,  is  excluded; 
there  is  a  deep-seated  prejudice  against  translation?-  even  from 
the  lanijutifie  derived  from  the  one  that  was  o  'heir  own 
nalinial  toiKjue  ;  Swedish  authors  are  scarcely  k^^v. ..  a  even  by 
name.  Swedon  itself  is  hold  in  downright  contempt ;  an  ex- 
pression of  surprise  covers  the  listener's  face  if  one  speaks  of 
any  of  the  excell<nt  features  of  this  country,  or  its  productions 
in  literature  or  art ;  the  same  rontempfc  would  fall  upon  Norway 
but  for  its  salmon  and  bears  and  wild  mountain  haunts,  which 
uUord  to  tiled  suiumer  travellers  a  refuge  from  the  over- 
cirilizntion  of  Enirhind,  Dtnuiurk  is  not  taken  into  the 
account  at  all.  With  a  narrow  provincialism  that  is  un- 
paralleled, England  lops  off  its  own  past,  the  most  glorious 
e[)ochs  of  its  antiquity,  forbids  the  mention  of  its  Vikin;,' 
ancestors,  is  deaf  to  all  knowledge  of  them,  and  excludes  the 
t  ree  nations  whose  early  history  is  identical  with  its  own  from 
all  fraternity  or  kinship  ! 

So  the  records  and  annals  went  to  Denmark  I  To  an 
American,  the  Kev.  E.  F.  Slafter,  the  public  is  indebted  ibr  a 
graphic  account  of  the  use  to  which  these  valuable  manuscripia 


Oft,  Honour  to  whom  ttoNOtJR  is  t)uB.    45 


wore   put;  this   is  contained   in   his    introduction    to    "The 
Voyages  of  the  Northmen  to  America:"  "The  Eoyal  Society 
of  Northern  Antiquaries,  at  Copenhagen,  entered  upon  the  in- 
vestigation of  the  subject  with  enthusiasm,  energy  and  compre- 
hensive views.     Their  scheme  involved  a  much  wider  field  than 
tho  visits  of  the  Northmen  to  America.     It  comprehended  a 
thorough  investigation  of  the  whole  subject  of  Scandinavian 
history  ani  literature.     The  Society  proposed  to  publish  from 
time  to  time  such  old  Northern  manuscripts  as  might  be  useful 
in  the  elucidation  of  history,  antiquities  and  language.     The 
field  was  divided  into    sections;   and    active  workers    were 
appointed  to  each,  selected  with  reference  to  their  especial  tastes 
and  learning.     The  fruits  of  these  labours  were  prolific ;  and  in 
the   progress  of   a  few  years   more  than  forty  volumes  were 
issued,  besides  gazettes  and  annu:  i  reports,  dealing  with  early 
Soanilinavian  life,  manners  and  customs,  in  their  multiform 
conditions  and  phases.     In  18?7,  Profefisor  Charles  Christian 
Bafn,  who  had  been  placed  at  the  head  of  the  section  on  the 
voyages  to  America,    published,   under  the  auspices   of    the 
Society,  an  elaborate  report,  in  a  volume  entitled  *  Antiquitatea 
AmericansB,*  an   imperial  quarto  of   526  pages,  richly  embel- 
lished with  numerous  illustrations  and  maps,  comprising  fac- 
sirailies  of  the  most  important  parchment  codices,  which  had 
been   taken  as  the  basis  of   the  work.     In  this  volume  the 
treatment  of    the  whole  subject  is  thorough    and  scholarly. 
While  it  is  never  safe  to  assume  that  the  treatment  of  any 
historical  question  is  absolutely  complete  and  exhaustive,  we 
apprehend  that  little  or  nothing  more  will  ever  be  added  to  our 
knowledge  of  the  voyages  made  to  this  country  by  the  North- 
men in  the  tenth  century." 

Pigott  also  communicates  some  information  on  the  subject : 
"  In  1594  appeared  a  Danish  translation  of  Snorre  Sturleson's 
'  Chronicle  of  the  Kings  of  Norway,*  written  in  the  thirteenth 
century  in  Icelandic,  which  threw  an  entirely  new  light  on  this 


hH 


ii 


i 


$6   The  Icelandic  Discoverers  of  America; 


hitherto  obscure  subject,  and  excited  the  further  researches  of 
the  learned  in  the  North.  One  of  the  most  ardent  in  this 
pursuit  was  Amgrim  Johnsen,  -who  died  m  1648,  and  who  by 
his  writings  and  industry  in  procuring  and  deciphering  old 
Icelandic  manuecripts,  obtained  a  great  mass  of  information  on 
the  subject.  Contemporary  with  him,  and  his  woithy  co- 
adjutor, was  Bryniulf  Svendsen,  Bishop  of  Iceland,  who  died  in 
1675.  The  former  discovered  and  sent  to  Olaus  Wormius,  in 
1628,  a  parchment  copy  of  the  Prose  Edda,  now  in  the 
Library  of  the  University  at  Copenhagen,  and  scarcely  ten 
years  afterwards,  Bryniulf  discovered  copies  on  parchment  both 
of  the  Prose  and  Poetic  Eddas,  and  sent  both  to  the  Boyal 
Library  at  Copenhagen." 

Kot  content  with  assuming  the  whole  tremendous  task  of 
making  this  buried  history  known,  with  performing  i<a  own 
duty  and  England's,  too,  with  informing  the  American  nation 
of  those  facts  in  its  own  early  history,  long  before  it  became  a 
nation,  which  have  alone  saved  it  from  impending  ruin,  from 
another  "  thousand  years'  eclipse  of  common- sense  and  reason  " 
(as  Oswald  describes  the  state  in  Europe  incident  upon  the 
Romanizing  process),  Denmaik  proposes  to  do  still  more,  this 
largely  for  the  benefit  of  England.  According  to  what  the  Earl 
of  Ellesmere  says :  "It  has  been  the  wish  of  the  Royal  Society 
of  Northern  Antiquaries,  when  its  means  should  admit  of  it,  to 
publish  a  collection,  as  complete  as  possible,  of  the  Scandinavian 
sources  of  the  early  history  of  Great  Britain  and  Ireland,  in  a 
separate  work,  to  form  a  companion  to  the  two  works  already 
undertaken  by  the  Society,  viz.  *  Antiquitates  Americanee  *  and 
*Antiquit68  Russes  et  Orientales.'  .  .  .  The  importance  of  a 
similar  collection  of  '  Antiquitates  BritannicsB  et  HibernicsB ' 
must  be  obvious.  .  .  .  When  a  greater  degree  of  attention  shall 
be  bestowed  in  the  British  Islands  on  the  undertakings  of  the 
Society  and  a  greater  degree  of  interest  awakened  for  the  matter 
in  question,  it  is  to  be  expected  that  the  Society  will  thereby 
be  enabled  to  realize  such  a  plan." 


OR,  Honour  to  whom  Honour  is  Due.     47 


So  little  Denmark  is  even  to  undertake  the  publication  of 
English  history,  which  England  is  too  indifferent  and  inert  to 
publish  for  itself  I  As  another  evideuce  of  this  wilful  ignorance 
and  disregard  of  a  subject  of  such'  vast  importance,  I  quote  a 
significant  little  note  in  N.  T-.  JBeamish's  book  :  " '  Illustrations 
of  JSTorthern  Antiquities,'  4to,  Edinburgh,  1814,  a  work  of  high 
value  and  great  promise,  but  which  the  want  of  public  support 
compelled  the  distinguished  compilers  and  antiquaries,  Jamieson 
and  Weber,  to  discontinue."  As  it  is  necessary  to  h'^ap  r  j 
evidence  on  this  point,  so  that  no  doubt  may  be  left  'f  the 
truth  in  the  mind  of  any  reader,  I  quote  some  more  testimony 
to  this  sad,  almost  inexplicable  fact  of  England's  remissness, 
which  might  have  cost  the  United  States  so  dearly  ;  Mallet 
says:  "The  sources  whence  issued  those  torrents  of  people, 
which  from  the  I^orth  overwhelmed  all  Europe,  the  principles 
which  put  them  in  motion,  and  gave  them  so  much  activity 
and  force,  these  objects,  so  grand  and  interesting,  have  been 
but  slightly  and  weakly  treated  of."  Pigott  says,  and  Pigott  is 
an  English  writer :  "  It  is  within  a  comparatively  recent  period 
only,  that  the  early  history  of  the  North  of  Europe  has  begun 
to  attract  much  attention  in  this  country  Previous  to  the 
publication  of  Mallet's  'Northern  Antiquities'  all  that  was 
known  on  the  subject  rested  chiefly  on  meagre  notices  gleaned 
from  Roman  writers,  whose  authority  on  this  subject,  from 
deficiency  of  sources  of  accurate  information,  was,  to  say  the 
least,  doubtful ;  and  on  the  exaggerated  account  of  the  Monkish 
Chroniclers,  who  had  too  good  reason  not  to  love  the  people 
whom  they  described.  Hence  the  hictory  of  the  Scandinavians 
or  Northmen,  as  they  were  afterwaids  called,  has  been  generally 
looked  upon  as  a  ir  ere  sanguinary  chronicle  of  piracies,  murders 
and  gloomy  superstitions,  and  but  little  inclination  felt  to 
explore  a  field  so  uninviting.  To  those,  however,  whose 
curiosity  has  led  them  to  examine  the  copious  sources  of  in- 
formation respecting  the  early  religion  and  history  of  Northern 
Europe,  furnished  by  the  Eddas  and  by  the  numerous  Sagas 


m 

1? 


Ml! 


48   tnt  tcEiAimic  iDisdOVEfeftRS  of  AMEfttCA 


I 


|i 


m 


whi(;h  exist  in  the  libraries  of  Copenhiigen  and  Stockholm  j  it 
cannot  fail  to  appear  a  curious  anomaly  that,  whilst  the  Grecian 
Mythology  in  all  its  varied  details  is  made  familiar  to  us  from 
our  childhood,  we  have  been  so  long  content  to  remain  in  great 
measure  ignorant  of  the  religious  superstitions  of  our  immediate 
ancestors ;  supeistitions  inferior  it  may  be  to  those  of  Greece  in 
refinement,  but  scarcely  so  in  wildness  or  sublimity ;  which 
contributed  so  much  to  form  the  peculiar  character  that  still 
distinguishes  the  inhabitants  of  Northern  Europe ;  which  even 
yet  linger  in  the  traditions  of  our  peasantry,  and  whose  traces 
are  enduringly  marked  in  the  names  of  some  of  our  foi^tivals, 
and  especially  of  the  days  of  our  week."  ••  " 

He  says  yet  more ;  for  once  on  this  subject  any  thinking  and 
truth-loving  person,  who  values  what  is  best  in  the  past,  will 
wax  earnest  and  indignant :  "  The  mythology  of  the  ancient 
Scandinavians,  respecting  which  so  much  curious  information 
has  been  brought  to  light,  of  late  years,  by  the  researches  of 
many  distinguished  writers,  in  Germany,  Denmark,  and  Sweden, 
has  hitherto  excited  but  little  attention  in  this  country,  although 
the  subject  is  well  calculated  to  awaken  our  interest,  not  only 
as  the  source  of  most  of  our  popular  superstitions,  from  whence 
the  favourite  authors  of  our  early  childhood  and  of  our  maturer 
age  have  drawn  their  witches,  their  dwarves,  their  giants,  and 
their  ghosts,  but  in  an  historical  point  of  view  also,  for  a  short 
retrospect  will  suflSce  to  show  that  the  religion  of  Odin  must 
have  exercised  a  great  and  lasting  influence  on  the  character 
and  institutions  of  the  inhabitants  of  Great  Britain." 

Not  from  Eddas  or  Sagas,  nor  the  "  Heimskringla,"  nor  the 
rich  stores  of  information  put  within  easy  reach  by  zealous 
Danish  antiquarians,  has  England  drawn  the  scanty  knowledge 
that  it  was  constrained  to  put  into  some  kind  of  liistorical 
shape.  That  English  historians  have  been  obliged  to  consult 
tome  authorities,  reliable  or  unreliable,  is  self-evident.  The 
authoni  I  have  quoted  are  unanimous  ia  asserting  that  they 


OR,  Honour  to  whom  Honour  is  Due.  49 


consulted  the  monkish  chroniclers  by  preference.  Having  had 
a  heroic  age,  this  transmitted  to  them  by  the  conquering  hosts 
who  settled  and  governed  England,  having  gained  through  these 
people,  a  race  combining  the  most  superb  traits,  a  mythology, 
equ.il  if  not  superior  to  the  Grecian,  an  ancient  literature  of 
which  any  land  could  be  proud,  and  which  was  virtually  the 
only  literature  in  Europe  at  that  time,  having  had  a  past  to 
which  not  only  England,  but  other  nations  owe  all  the  liberty 
they  possess,  the  English  consult  the  records  of  a  class  of  men 
whose  sole  office  during  all  the  ages  in  question  was  to  eradicate 
both  the  Grecian  and  Scandinavian  mythologies,  to  blast  lite- 
rature, to  get  the  better,  by  fair  means  or  foul,  of  the  race  who 
were  sowing  the  seeds  of  liberty  broad-cast  over  Europe,  and 
whose  sole  office  since  that  pdriod  has  been  tu  blacken  the  past 
in  which  the  free-born  Scandinavians  figured  and  to  so  defame 
them  that  posterity  would  regard  them  as  monsters  1 

Laing  is  able  to  say  who  and  what  some  of  these  men  were 
personally :  "  Oui  early  historians,  from  the  venerable  Bede 
downwards,  however  accurate  in  the  events  and  dates  they 
record,  and  however  valuable  f"-  this  accuracy,  are  undeniably 
the  dullest  of  chroniclers.  Thij  vere  monks,  ifjnorant  of  the 
world  beyond  their  convent-walls,  recordincr  the  death  of  tlifir 
abbots,  the  legends  of  their  founders,  and  tho  miracles  <>f  their 
sainted  brethren,  as  the  most  important  events  in  history  ;  the 
facts  being  stated  without  exercise  of  judgment,  or  in<|uiry  af  r 
truth,  the  fictions  with  a  dull  credulity  unenlivened  -  a  single 
gleam  of  genius.  ...  It  is  not  to  be  denied  that  an  this  con- 
nected series  of  Anglo-Saxon  and  Anglo-Norman  history,  from 
the  dissolution  of  the  Roman  empire  in  Britain  in  the  middle 
of  the  Hfth  century  down  to  the  middle  of  the  thirteenti  utury, 
although  composed  by  such  writers  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  popula- 
tion as  Bede  and  Matthew  Paris,  men  the  most  eminent  of 
their  times  for  lofirning  and  literary  attainments  amongst  the 
Anglo-Saxons  and  their  doscendai^ts,  is  of  the  most  unmitigated 


i' 

i::: 


■Mil 


Rf^il 


111' 


.1 


'91 


m 


'  Tliiip 


I  'f 


m 


50    The  Icelandic  Discoverers  of  America  ; 

dullness,  considered  as  literary  or  intellectual  production ;  and 
that  all  the  historical  compositions  of  the  old  Anglo-Saxon 
branch  during  those  eight  centuries,  either  in  England  or  in 
Germany,  are,  with  few  if  any  exceptions,  of  the  same  leaden 
character." 

These  in  England  and  France,  distorting  the  characteristics 
of  the  Norsemen  and  Yikings,  and  concealing  everything  that 
was  to  their  credit,  and  the  monkish  writers  in  Spain  and  Italy 
extolling  Columbus  a  few  centuries  later,  a  man  after  their  own 
heart,  both  sedulously  hiding  the  fact  of  the  Norse  discovery  of 
America,  which  the  Fomish  Church  must  of  necessity  have 
known  at  the  date  of  its  accomplishment,  all  these  conspired  to 
prepare  a  pitfall  for  the  future  American  Republic,  which  it  will 
be  barely  able  to  escape.     '     .  ■    c'-    :'.;li    vn        ,,    ji'-     :;*v 

English  predilections  were  obviously  with  the  monks,  with 
the  Church  ;  not  only  did  the  English  people  accept  and  dis- 
seminate the  garbled  versions  of  these  professional  falsifiers 
relative  to  the  deeds  of  their  own  ancestors  and  kinsmen,  but 
they  joined  forces  with  them  to  subdue  the  nations  of  the  North 
through  the  only  means  available — that  is  by  converting  them 
to  Christianity.  This  was  their  last  resort,  a  stratagem  of  war  of 
those  deficient  in  genuine  military  qualifications,  and  who  could 
not  overcome  their  enemy  by  legitimate  means.  English  mis- 
sionaries and  priests  went  to  Norway,  Sweden,  and  Denmark, 
and  laboured  indefatigably  to  convert  the  inhabitants.  "It 
was  from  England"  affirms  the  Earl  of  Ellesraere  proudly, 
"  that  Norway  received  the  first  germ  of  Christianity.  It  was 
there  tliat  Hakon,  the  first  Christian  king  of  Norway,  com- 
mence«l  and  finished  his  education,  during  the  period  from  937 
to  963,  though  he  failed  in  the  elluit  to  i:st;iblish  his  own  faith 
among  his  subjects.  ...  It  was  reserved  for  tlie  insignificant 
islets  of  Scilly  to  kindle  for  Norway  tiiat  light,  whii^h  was 
thence  to  be  ilirlut^ed  over  the  remntrst  North,  The  expntriated 
Norwegian  prince  and  sea-king,  Olui  Tryggvason,  known  in  the 


I, ' 


III' 


OR,  Honour  to  whom  Honour  is  Due.  51 


history  of  England  by  the  name  of  Anlaf,  received  baptism  in 
these  isles  in  993." 

It  is  well  known  what  atrocities  Olaf  Tryggvason  perpetrated  in 
forcing  his  subjects  to  adopt  Christianity.  English  bishops  also 
converted  Olaf  Ericson,  king  of  Sweden,  in  1008.  Wheaton  has 
something  significant  to  relate  about  the  Hakon  referred  to: 
Harald  H&rfager's  son,  Hakon,  who  had  been  educated  in  the 
new  religion  at  the  court  of  King  Athelstane,  took  with  him 
from  England  some  Christian  priests  and  missionaries.  He 
assembled  a  large  conclave  of  people,  where  he  tried  to  intro- 
duce this  doctrine.  A  rich  and  popular  landholder  rose  to 
oppose  it,  and  made  a  fervent  protest,  in  which  he  said :  "  But 
now  we  know  not  what  to  think,  that  thou  who  didst  restore 
to  us  our  lost  freedom,  shouldst  desire  to  fasten  upon  us  a  new 
and  more  intolerable  yoke  of  slavery."  Wheaton  gives  us  the 
whole  speech,  and  a  remarkable  oratorical  effort  it  is  1  The  dis- 
tinguished Swedish  novelist,  Victor  Rydberg,  in  "The  lAst 
Athenian,"  puts  into  the  mouth  of  one  of  his  anti-Christian 
characters  a  similar  objection:  "The  Christians,  Hermione, 
hate  the  high  expression  of  art,  as  much  as  the  deep  seriousness 
of  investigation.  They  talk  of  poverty  and  plunder  our  temples 
— of  humility  and  trample  upon  our  necks.  .  .  .  They  are  a 
pack  of  malefactors,  intriguers,  hypocrites  and  asses.  They  tear 
in  pieces  the  world  and  each  other  in  disputes  on  words  without 
meaning ;  but  that  in  which  they  all  agree,  is  what  I  most 
despise  ;  all  banish  the  freedom  of  reason,  all  teach  that  the 
power  of  rulers  and  the  slavery  of  the  people  is  from  God. 
Freedotn  has  departed  from  real  life,  but  these  people  deny  it 
even  in  thought."  ....  ,  .   •. 

The  only  way  of  depriving  the  formidable  Northern  lion  of 
teeth  and  claws  was  to  Christianize  it.  Freedom,  freedom  of 
life  and  action,  freedom  of  thought,  freedom  in  a  vigour  and 
exuberance  of  development  never  attained  before,  had  made 
the  Northern  race  dangerous,  nay,  absolutely  fatal  to  the  priest- 


(i! 


I 


IS 


aa 


;■  ; 


$2   The  Icelandic  Discoverers  of  America; 

ridden,  enslaved  masses  of  southern  and  middle  Europe.  The 
mere  sight  or  knowledge  of  these  grovelling,  craven,  black- 
gowned,  canting  hordes,  inflamed  the  Viking  rage  to  frenzy,  in- 
citing the  utmost  ferocity ;  it  was  not  honourable  warfare  be- 
tween equals,  between  men  and  men,  but  assault  made  by  free, 
high-spirited,  valiant  men  upon  slaves,  upon  those  whom  they 
could  not  but  consider  their  inferiors,  and  whom  they  deemed  it 
meritorious  to  exterminate.  The  rage  of  the  J»f orthmen  was  the 
unconscious  fury  of  nature  against  the  destroyers  of  nature,  the 
antipathy  of  health  toward  disease,  the  efFort  of  nature  to  free 
itself  from  that  which  is  inimical  to  it.  With  the  instinct  of 
self-preservation  which  evil  has  in  common  with  good,  and  with 
the  burning  desire  for  temporal  supremacy  over  the  whole  world 
which  has  over  been  its  animating  motive,  the  Romish  power 
devised  and  used  the  only  possible  means  of  rendering  the 
^forthern  destroyer  harmless.  Subdue  these  hosts  by  force  of 
arms  it  could  not.  Strategy  and  priestly  craft  would  avail 
where  manly  courage  was  not  at  command.  It  was  not  the 
good  of  their  souls  nor  their  eternal  welfare,  not  the  inculcation 
of  divine  truth  that  was  aimed  at,  but  the  eradication  of  that 
principle  and  love  of  freedom  that  rendered  all  of  Northern 
blood  dangerous  to  the  Church,  whose  sole  mission  was  to 
compel  subjection  to  its  own  baleful  rule.  This  detestation  of 
all  things  Scandinavian  the  Bomans  and  the  Bomi&h  Church 
were  able  to  instil  into  the  English,  and  the  two  worked  in 
concert  to  enslave  the  people  of  the  North. 

And  how  did  they  fuscomplish  it  1  In  the  words  of  Wheaton : 
**  Under  the  impulse  of  this  blind  zeal,  Olaf  Tryggvason  joined 
treachery  to  cruelty  as  one  of  the  means  of  propagating  the  true 
faith."  In  the  "  Heimskringla"  we  are  told  that  "  Olaf  Trygg- 
vason's  short  reign  was  in  fact  entirely  devoted  to  the  propaga- 
tion of  the  new  faith,  by  means  the  most  revolting  to  humanity," 
and  the  sagas  abound  in  instances  of  the  exercise  of  the  blackest 
deeds  of  darkness  in  spreading  the  light  of  Christianity.    Many 


It  j:' 


OR,  Honour  to  whom  Honour  is  Due.  53 


streams  of  noble  Northern  blood  went  to  swell  the  tide  that 
had  been  shed  throughout  Europe,  to  kill  that  pernicious  germ 
of  freedom  that  could  only  be  destroyed  through  wholesale 
slaughter.  In  ''The  History  of  Rationalism,"  Lecky  affirms: 
*'  That  the  Church  of  Rome  has  shed  more  innocent  blood  than 
any  other  institution  that  has  ever  existed  among  mankind, 
will  be  questioned  by  no  Protestant  who  has  a  complete  know- 
ledge of  history." 

Among  the  measures  used  were  also  such  as  these :  "  Otho 
III.,  of  the  Saxon  line,  concluded  a  peace  with  Harold  Blaatand, 
the  principal  condition  of  which  was  that  the  Danish  people 
should  embrace  Christianity,  and  their  king  should  endeavour 
to  introduce  the  new  religion  in  Norway."  Wheaton  quotes 
Charles  the  Simple's  words,  which  so  well  show  the  disgraceful 
means  employed :  "  My  kingdom  is  laid  waste,"  said  the  monarch 
to  the  prelate,  "my  subjects  are  destroyed  or  driven  into  exile; 
the  fields  are  no  longer  ploughed  or  sown.  Tell  the  Norman 
that  I  am  well  disposed  to  make  a  lasting  peace  with  him,  and 
that  if  he  will  become  a  Christian,  I  will  give  him  broad  lands 
and  rich  presents."  Rolf  readily  consented  to  the  proposal,  as 
did  many  other  leaders  and  generals  to  similar  ones.  There 
appeared  to  them  no  reason  why  they  should  not  accept  advan- 
tageous terms  from  a  vanquished  foe,  and  as  for  embracing 
Christianity,  that  seemed  the  idlest  and  emptiest  of  ceremonies 
to  men  whose  religion  sat  so  lightly  upon  them.  To  them 
belief  in  the  gods  was  more  a  matter  of  poetry  and  ideality 
than  of  practical  import  j  it  served  to  kindle  their  enthusiasm, 
perhaps  their  valour,  although  this  in  the  main  was  self-fed ; 
and  with  a  religion  that  had  no  rites  or  ceremonies  to  speak  of, 
no  established  priesthood,  that  exercised  no  tyranny  over  them, 
it  was  a  moral  impossibility  for  them  to  conceive  of  such  a 
system  as  the  Christian  Church,  or  to  imagine  to  what  a  horrible 
thraldom  they  were  consigning  themselves  and  their  descendants. 

However,  the  mistake  they  made,  and  through  no  iault  Qt 


'<  if 


$4    The  Icelandic  Discoverers  of  America; 


theirs  either — ^they  were  too  nohle,  too  frank,  too  single-minded 
to  fathom  the  dopih  of  perfidy  in  the  Bomish  Church,  in  the 
religious  system  called  Christianity — this  mistake  the  people  of 
the  United  States  can  retrieve.  The  spirit  of  the  Norsemen 
has  dc ended  into  Americans.  They,  and  not  the  English,  as 
events  have  proven,  are  the  true  heirs  of  the  glorious  heritage 
bequeathed  by  the  ancient  Scandinavians.  The  colonists,  who 
revolted  against  English  oppression,  and  who  threw  off  all  alle- 
giance to  the  Crown,  were  totally  unaware  that  there  was  that 
in  the  English  past  that  had  nourished  and  inspired  their  own 
spirit  of  independence,  that  they  had  ancestors  who  had 
possessed  their  own  distinguishing  traits,  and  who  had  laboured 
manfully  to  make  these  traits  the  prevailing  ones  in  English 
character,  and  so  they  cut  all  the  links  that  had  bound  them  to 
England. 

If  England  had  revered  its  own  free-minded  ancestors,  if  it 
had  seconded  the  efforts  of  the  North  to  spread  liberty  over  all 
the  nations  of  the  earth,  instead  of  the  efforts  of  Rome  to  stifle 
liberty  for  ever  by  putting  all  nations,  the  Scandinavian  included, 
under  the  perpetual  rule  of  the  Church,  the  conduct  of  America 
since  the  hour  it  became  an  independent  Republic  would  have 
been  very  different  and  the  present  peril  would  have  been 
averted.  Precautions  could  then  have  been  taken  in  time 
against  the  continual  encroachments  of  the  Roman  Catholic 
power  in  the  United  States ;  the  full  purpose  and  design  of 
that  power  would  have  been  apparent ;  Americans,  in  a  body, 
would  have  realized  that  while  they  were  working,  with  one 
heart  and  one  soul,  for  the  formation  of  an  ideal  Republic,  in 
which  the  principles  of  liberty,  of  right,  of  equity,  of  justice, 
would  be  fully  embodied,  there  was  an  insidious  force  in  their 
midst  steadily  using  liberty  to  undermine  liberty,  a  force  that 
was  pledged  to  tyranny,  evil,  and  the  subversion  of  right ;  whose 
record  was  iniquity,  and  whose  intent  was  iniquity  I  No 
waruing  came  through  the  watchful  care  of  the  Mother  country; 


i  M 


OR,  Honour  to  whom  Honour  is  Due.     55 


it  only  gave  the  precedent  of  the  frequent  conversion  of  high 
persons  from  among  the  nobility  to  the  Roman  Catholic  faith. 
No  admonition  was  uttered  by  England  to  the  less  experienced 
sons  and  daughters  of  England  across  the  water  to  the  effect 
that  "  eternal  vigilance  was  the  price  of  safety."  They  were 
never  told  by  England  that  they  should  honour  their  Norse 
ancestors,  be  true  to  the  principles  these  held  so  dear,  and 
perfect  the  Republic  founded  on  a  model  that  the  Norsemen 
themselves  had  originated  and  outwrought  in  Iceland  and 
Switzerland.  The  knowledge  of  the  Norse  discovery  of 
America  did  not  come  to  the  people  of  the  United  States  from 
England,  but  from  Denmark.  England  took  no  interest  in  the 
matter,  was  indifferent  as  to  whether  it  was  true  or  false,  felt 
no  pride  in  a  discovery  so  momentous,  made  by  its  own  ancestors, 
saw  no  necessity  of  informing  Americans  of  a  fact  of  such  vital 
importance  as  to  prove  their  greatest  safeguard  against  a  deadly 
foe!  ..>;■*■.    .:■   V--.- :,.■£' 

But  Denmark  came  to  the  rescue  !  Denmark  performed  the 
whole  duty  that  England  had  evaded.  The  tidings  so  fraught 
with  mighty  consequences  to  the  young  Republic,  were  seized 
with  avidity  by  A'-nericans,  and  responded  to  in  the  right  spirit. 
No  sooner  was  that  great  work  of  Professor  Rafn's  printed, 
than  the  Historical  Society  of  Rhode  Island  opened  corre- 
spondence with  the  Royal  Society  of  Northern  Antiquaries  in 
Copenhagen,  and  several  translations  of  the  Norse  voyages  to 
.A.mfirica  were  put  within  reach  of  American  readers.  The 
Prince  Society,  in  Boston,  republished  the  translation  oi  these 
by  N.  L.  Beamish,  an  English  author,  w^ho,  like  Laing,  Pigott, 
the  Howitts,  and  others,  exerted  himself  to  the  utmost  to 
rouse  the  English  public  into  some  sort  of  action,  and  numerous 
American  works  appeared  on  the  subject.  Gratitude  was  not 
wanting  either  to  our  Norse  ancestors ;  the  appreciation  so  Ic.ng 
deferred,  the  tribute  refused  them  by  their  English  descendants, 
was  yielded  gladly  by  their  American  ones !     Benjamin  Lossing 


:   i 


>'t| 


z' 


M 


I  i  .: 


hi 


56    The  Icelandic  Discoverers  of  America; 


wrote :  "  It  is  buck  to  the  Northern  Vikings  we  must  look  for 
the  hardiest  elements  of  progress  in  the  United  States."  And 
B.  F.  De  Costa  :  "  We  fable  in  a  great  measure  when  we  spenk 
of  our  Saxon  inheritance  ;  it  is  rather  from  the  Northmen  that 
we  have  derived  our  vital  energy,  our  freedom  of  thought,  and, 
in  a  measure  that  we  do  not  yet  suspect,  our  strength  of  speech." 
The  accounts  of  the  Norse  voyages  to  America  also  seem  to 
have  met  with  full  credence,  Bancroft,  the  historian,  forming 
the  signal  exception  to  the  rule.  Remarking  this,  Mr,  Slafter, 
in  his  introduction  to  the  "  Voyages,"  says :  "  Mr.  Bancroft,  in 
the  earliest  of  his  "  History  of  the  United  States,"  treats  the 
alleged  Icelandic  voyages  to  this  continent  as  a  myth,  and,  in 
his  last,  has  not  in  any  degree  modified  his  sweeping  statements 
of  distrust.  We  are  not  aware  that  any  other  distinguished 
historian  has  reached  the  same  conclusion."  Mr.  Slafter  him* 
self  asserts  :  "  Both  of  these  documents  are  declared,  by  those 
qualified  to -judge  of  the  character  of  ancient  writings,  to  be 
authentic,  and  were  clearly  regarded  by  their  writers  as  narratives 
of  historical  truth."  Edward  Everett  writes,  quite  as  emphati- 
cally, in  the  North  American  Review:  "These  accounts  are 
either  founded  on  truth,  or  they  are  wholly  false ;  and  those 
who  hold  to  the  latter  opinion  will,  we  think,  find  more  diffi- 
culty in  carrying  out  their  hypothesis,  than  there  is  in  admitting 
the  substantial  truth  of  the  tradition."  Ben.  Franklin,  Baldwin, 
Goodrich,  T.  W.  Higgenson,  J.  Abbott,  W.  C.  Bryant,  and 
many  other  AmericaLS  have  written  in  confirmation  of  the  truth 
of  the  Norse  discovery  of  America,  as  founded  on  the  Icelandic 
narratives. 

But  the  duty  of  Americans  does  not  end  with  this  acknow- 
ledgment of  the  truth.  The  Roman  Catholics  in  their  midst 
and  in  Europe  have  been  diligently  spreading  a  statement  in 
direct  refutation  of  all  this,  the  consummation  of  their  long- 
continued  policy  of  at  once  concealing  the  discovery  of  the 
Norsemen  and  8ub4itutiug  that  of  Columbus  lor  it    Their 


Or,  Honour  to  whom  Honour  is  Due.     57 


j,Min,  sliouM  this  subrstitution  be  allowed,  need  not  bo  described  ; 
it  is  already  apparent  enough.  The  wish  expressed  for  a  general 
celebration  of  the  discovery  of  America  by  Columbus,  is  the 
first  wa  y  move  of  the  Roman  Catholi's  Church  to  uproot  freedom 
from  American  soil.  It  is  the  signal  for  the  renewal  of  the  old 
conflict  with  the  Norsemen  in  nearly  every  country  of  Europe. 
Once  the  Norse  discovery  is  thoroughly  accredited,  the  United 
States,  as  a  nation  acting  upon  it,  the  true  discoverers  honoured, 
the  false  one  execrated  as  he  deserves,  the  Church  that  has 
aided  and  abetted  him  execrated  as  it  deserves,  the  kinship 
and  sympathy  of  Norsemen  and  Americans  realized  and  ac- 
knowledged— once  this  comes  about,  the  Romish  band  of  con- 
spirators from  Pope  to  canting,  whining  priest,  have  their  old 
enemy  bodily  before  them  again,  only  refreshed  by  their  long 
sleep  of  a  thousand  y^ars  and  eager  to  take  up  the  old  battle  on 
soil  that  will  not  betray  them  as  did  Europe  1 

Americans  are  to  put  on  the  Norse  armour  and  seal  the 
glorious  work  for  universal  liberty  that  their  ancestors  have 
bequeathed  to  them  t 


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CHAPTER  HL 


THB  BVIDENOB  THAT  THB   NORSBMBN   DISOOVBRED   AMERICA 
IN  THE  TENTH   CENTURY. 

As  has  "been  seen  by  the  statement  of  S:,muel  Laing  quoted  in 
the  first  chapter,  the  proof  that  the  Norsemen  discovered 
America,  five  hundred  years  before  Columbus,  rests  entirely  on 
documentary  evidence,  and  this  evidence  is  to  be  found  in  the 
two  sagas  contained  in  the  "  Codex  Flatoiensis."  Mr.  Slafter's 
statement  is  substantially  the  same,  as  far  as  the  manuscripts 
are  concerned :  "  Among  the  vast  number  of  Scandinavian 
manuscripts  there  are  two  historical  sagas  which  describe  western 
voyages,  undertaken  during  the  twenty-five  years  that  intervened 
between  985  and  1011.  One  of  them  is  known  as  the  Saga  of 
Erik  the  Red  and  the  other  as  that  of  Thorfinn  Karlsefne.  On 
these  two  documents  rests  all  the  essential  evidence  wliicli  we 
have  relating  to  the  voyages  of  the  Northmen  to  America. 
Allusions  are  found  in  several  other  Scandinavian  writings, 
which  may  corroborate  and  confirm  the  narratives  of  tl\G  two 
important  sagas  to  which  we  have  just  referred,  but  add  nothing 
to  them  really  essential  or  important.  The  S  iga  of  Erik  the 
Red  is  taken  from  the  Codex  Flateyensis,  containing  a  number 
of  sagas,  which  were  collected  and  written  out  in  their  present 
form  at  some  time  between  the  years  1387  and  1395.  The 
original  saga,  of  which  this  is  a  copy,  is  not  known  to  be  now  in 
existence,  but  is  conjectured,  from  internal  evidence  drawn  from 
its  language  and  style,  t(j  have  been  originally  composed  in  the 
twelfth  century.     The  saga  of  Thorfinn  Karlsefne  in  its  present 


OR,  Honour  to  whom  Honour  is  Due.      59 


form  ia  supposed  to  have  been  written,  at  least  a  part  of  it,  by 
Hauk  Erlendson,  for  many  years  governor  of  Iceland,  who  died 
in  1334.  "Whether  it  had  been  committed  to  writing  at  an 
earlier  period,  and  copied  by  him  from  a  manuscript,  or  whether 
he  took  the  narrative  from  oral  tradition  and  reduced  it  himself 
to  writing  for  the  first  time,  is  not  known."  In  the  translation 
of  the  voyages,  a  little  light  is  thrown  upon  this  point,  for  it  is 
stated  that  "Karlsefne  has  accurately  related  to  all  men  the 
occurrences  on  all  these  voyages,  of  which  somewhat  is  now 
recited  here." 

But  to  give  Mr.  Slafter's  full  opinion  concerning  their  relia- 
bility :  "  While  there  is  no  corroborating  evidence  outside  of 
Icelandic  writings  themselves,  no  monuments  in  this  country 
confirming  the  truthfulness  of  the  narratives,  they  have  never- 
theless all  the  elements  of  truth  contained  in  other  sagas,  which 
are  clearly  confirmed  by  monumental  remains.  Events  occurring 
in  Greenland,  recorded  in  Icelandic  sagas  of  equal  antiquity, 
are  established  by  the  undoubted  testimony  of  ancient  monu- 
ments. This,  together  with  the  fact  that  there  is  no  improba- 
bility that  such  voyages  should  have  been  made,  render  it  easy 
to  believe  that  the  narratives  contfiined  in  the  sagas  are  true  in 
their  general  outlines  and  important  features." 

The  proof  thus  being  in  such  a  compact  shape,  and  authentic, 
it  only  remains  for  us  to  see  how  this  has  been  regarded  by  minds 
whose  conclusions  are  of  value.  Among  these  Baron  von 
Humboldt  must  naturally  take  precedence.  Before  presenting 
his  testimony,  which  would  have  great  weight,  even  if  unsup- 
ported by  that  of  scores  of  other  writers,  I  cite  Mr.  Slafter's  words 
about  this  testimony  :  "  In  treating  of  the  discovery  of  America 
the  author  (Alex,  von  Humboldt)  refers  to  the  voyages  of  the 
Northmen  to  this  continent  as  a  matter  of  settled  history.  He 
does  not  even  ofier  an  apology,  or  suggest  a  doubt.  The  vast  learn- 
ing, just  discrimination,  and  sound  sense  of  this  distinguished 
scholar,  give  great  weight  to  his  opinions  on  any  subject." 


il 


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1 1 


6o   The  Icelandic  Discoverers  of  America; 


The  following  extract  is  taken  from  the  sooond  volume  of  the 
"  Cosmos :"  "  Although  the  acquaintance  of  the  nations  of 
Europe  with  the  western  part  of  the  earth  is  the  main  subject 
of  our  consideration  in  this  section,  and  that  around  which  the 
numerous  relations  of  a  more  correct  and  a  grander  view  of  the 
universe  are  grouped,  we  must  yet  draw  a  strong  line  of  separa- 
tion between  the  undoubted  first  discovery  of  America,  in  its 
northern  portions,  by  the  Northmen,  and  its  subsequent  re-dia- 
covery  in  its  tropical  regions.  Whilst  the  Caliphate  still 
flourished  under  the  Abassides  at  Bagdad,  and  Persia  was  under 
the  dominion  of  the  Samanides,  whose  age  was  so  favourable  to 
poetry,  America  was  discovered  in  the  year  1000  by  Leif,  the 
son  of  Eric  the  Rod,  by  the  northern  route,  and  as  far  as 
41**  30'  north  latitude."  In  a  foot  note,  the  author  says : 
"  Parts  of  America  were  seen,  although  no  landing  was  made 
on  them,  fourteen  years  before  Leif  Eiricksson,  in  the  voyage 
wliich  Bjarne  Herjulfsson  undertook  from  Greenland  toward 
the  southward  in  986.  Leif  first  saw  the  land  at  the  island 
of  Nantucket,  1**  south  of  Boston;  then  in  Nova  Scotia; 
and,  lastly,  in  Newfoundland,  which  was  subsequently  called 
*  Litla  Hollulaud,'  but  never  *  Vinland.'  The  gulf  which 
divides  Newfoundland  from  the  mouth  of  the  great  river  St. 
Lawrence,  was  called  by  the  Northmen,  who  had  settled  in 
Itelaud  and  Greenland,  Markland's  Gulf."  (See  Caroli  Christiani 
Kiifn  Antiquitates  AmericansB,  1845,  pp.  4,  421,  423  and  463.) 
liaion  von  Humboldt  thus  cites  the  same  authority,  the  sole  and 
incontrovertible  one.  He  continues :  '*  The  first,  although  acci- 
dental incitement  towards  this  event  emanated  from  Norway. 
Towards  the  close  of  the  ninth  century  Naddod  was  driven  by 
storms  to  Iceland  whilst  attempting  to  reach  the  Faroe 
Islands,  which  had  already  been  visited  by  the  Irish.  The  first 
pnttlement  of  the  Northmen  was  made  in  876  by  Ingolf.  Green- 
land, the  eastern  peninsula  of  a  land  wliich  appears  to  be  every- 
where separated  by  the  sea  from  America  proper,  was  early 


OR,  Honour  to  whom  Honour  is  Due.     6i 


seen  "  (quotes  Eufn  again),  "  although  it  was  first  peopled  from 
Iceland  a  hundred  years  later  (983).  .  .  Notwithstanding  the 
proximity  of  the  opposite  shores  of  Labrador  (Helluland  it 
mikla),  125  years  elapsed  from  the  first  settlement  of  the  North- 
men in  Iceland  to  Leif's  great  discovery  of  America.  So 
small  were  the  means  possessed  by  a  noble,  enterprising,  but  not 
wealthy  race  for  furthering  navigation  in  these  remote  and 
dreary  regions  of  the  earth.  The  littoral  tracts  of  Vinland,  so 
called  by  the  German  Tyrker  from  the  wild  grapes  which  were 
found  there,  delighted  its  discoverers  by  the  fruitfulness  of  the 
soil,  and  the  mildness  of  its  climate,  when  compared  with  Ice- 
land and  Greenland.  This  tract,  which  was  named  by  Leif  the 
•Good  Vinland'  (Vinland  it  goda),  comprised  the  coast-line 
between  Boston  and  New  York,  and  consequently  parts  of  the 
present  States  of  Massachusetts,  Rhode  IsLmd,  and  Connecticut, 
between  the  parallels  of  latitude  of  Civita  Vecchia  and  Terra- 
cina,  which,  however,  correspond  there  only  to  mean  annual 
temperatures  of  47°  8'  and  52"  1'.  This  was  the  prin- 
cipal settlement  of  the  Northmen.  The  colonists  had  often 
to  contend  with  a  very  warlike  race  of  Esquimaux,  who  then 
extended  further  to  the  south  under  the  name  of  the  Skralinger. 
The  first  Bishop  of  Greenland,  Eric  Upsi,  an  Icelander,  under- 
took, in  1121,  a  Christian  mission  to  Vinland ;  and  the  name  of 
the  colonized  country  has  even  been  discovered  in  old  national 
songs  of  the  inhabitants  of  the  Faroe  Islands. 

"  The  activity  and  bold  spirit  of  enterprise  manifested  by  the 
Greenland  and  Icelandic  adventurers  are  proved  by  the  circum- 
stance that,  after  they  had  established  settlements  south  of 
41°  30'  north  latitude,  they  erected  three  boundary  pillars 
on  the  eastern  shores  of  Baffin's  Bay,  at  the  latitude  of  72°  55', 
on  one  of  the  Woman's  Islands,  north-west  of  the  present 
most  northern  Dunish  colony  of  Upernavik.  The  Runic 
inscriptions,  which  were  discovered  in  the  autumn  of  the  year 
1824,  contain,  according  to  Bask  and  Finn  Magnuseii,  the 


:  ;i 


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m 


62    The  Icelandic  Discoverers  of  America  ; 


ii 


date  1135.  From  this  eastern  coast  of  Baffin's  Bay,  more  than 
six  hundred  years  before  the  bold  expeditions  of  Parry  and  Boss, 
the  colonists  very  regularly  visited  Lancaster  Sound  and  a  part 
of  Barrow's  Straits  for  the  purpose  of  fishing.  The  locality  of 
the  fishing-ground  is  very  definitely  described,  and  Greenland 
priests  from  the  bishopric  of  Gardar  conducted  the  first  voyage 
of  discovery  (1266).  This  north-western  summer  station  was 
called  Kroksfjardar  Heath.  Mention  is  even  made  of  the  drift 
wood  (undoubtedly  from  Siberia)  collected  there,  and  of  the 
abundance  of  whales,  seals,  walruses,  and  sea-bears."  '^  ' 

■'Baron  von  Humboldt  has  asserted  that  the  merit  of  first 
recognizing  the  discovery  of  America  by  the  Northmen  belongs 
indisputably  to  Ortelius.  The  work  in  which  this  credit  is 
given  the  Northmen,  the  "Theatrum  Orbis  Terrarum,"  is  a 
superb  illuminated  volume,  of  which  the  translation  was  printed 
in  London  in  1606;  the  author's  preface  is  dated  Antwerp^ 
1570.  Philip  II.  of  Spain,  as  we  are  informed  by  the  bio- 
grapher, graced  Ortelius  with  the  honour  and  title  of  the  king's 
cosmographer.  A  few  words  from  this  biography  will  convey 
the  scope  of  the  author's  ambition  and  ability:  "There  (at 
Antwerp)  he  began  to  apply  himself  to  benefit  succedent  ages, 
to  write  of  those  countries  by  him  viewed  and  seen,  to  set  out 
in  charts  and  maps  divers  places  both  of  sea  and  land  unknown 
to  former  ages,  to  describe  the  tracts  and  coasts  of  the  east  and 
west,  south  and  north,  never  spoken  of  nor  touched  by  Ptolemy, 
Pliny,  Strabo,  Mela,  or  any  other  historiographer  whatsoever." 
The  paragraph  in  question  is  this  :  "  But  to  me  it  seems  more 
probable,  out  of  the  history  of  the  two  Zeni,  gentlemen  of 
Venice  (which  I  have  put  down  before  the  table  of  the  South 
Sea,  and  before  that  of  Scandia)  that  this  new  world  many  ages 
past  was  entered  upon  by  some  islanders  of  Europe,  as  namely 
of  Greenland,  Iceland,  and  Friesland  ;  being  much  nearer  there- 
unto than  the  Indians,  nor  disjoined  thence  (as  appears  out  of  the 
map)  by  an  ocean  so  huge  and  to  the  Indians  so  unnavigable." 


lit?- 


OR,  Honour  to  whom  Honour  is  Due.  63 

Au  early  printed  allusion,  some  say  the  earliest,  to  the  Norse 
discovery  of  America,  occurs  in  Adam  of  Bremen's  "  Historia 
Ecclesiastica  Hamburgensis  et  Bremensis,"  published  at  Copen- 
hagen, 1579.  The  passage  referred  to  is  the  following,  and  Mr. 
Slafter  asserts  that  it  was  written  long  before  the  sagas  were 
reduced  to  writing :  "The  same  king"  (Swein  Estrithson,  of 
Denmark,  a  nephew  of  Canute  the  Great)  "  has  besides  told  us 
of  the  discovery  of  still  another  island  in  the  midst  of  the 
ocean,  which  is  called  Vinland,  because  the  grapes  grow  there 
spontaneously  and  give  the  most  glorious  wine,  also  grain,  with- 
out being  sowed,  grows  there  in  abundance.  This  is  no  fabulous 
representation,  but  is  founded  on  the  reliable  communications 
of  the  Danes." 

Another  early  account,  and  a  correct  one,  of  the  discoveries 
of  the  Scandinavians  in  the  west,  was  given  by  Thormod 
Torfaeus,  in  his  "  Historia  Vinlandise  Antiquse."  E.  H.  Major, 
who  has  edited  one  edition  of  the  letters  of  Columbus,  gives  a 
list  of  several  other  ancient  authors,  Vitalis,  Mylius,  Grotius, 
&c.,  who  mention  the  Scandinavian  voyages,  and  after  giving 
quite  a  detailed  account  of  them  himself,  says  in  conclusion 
that  "no  room  is  left  for  disputing  the  main  fact  of  the  dis- 
covery." 

In  the  Swedish  work  "  Nordbon  under  Hednatiden  "  (Norse- 
men during  the  Pagan  Period),  by  A.  E.  Holuiber^',  there  is  a 
curious  bit  of  information :  "As  late  as  the  year  1347  history 
can  mention  a  voyage  undertaken  from  Greenland  to  Vinland. . . . 
This  statement  is  to  be  found  in  the  Skalholt  annals,  concluded 
in  the  year  1356.  Finally  we  will,  as  a  further  proof  of  our 
forefathers'  knowledge  of  America  long  before  Columbus'  time, 
mention  a  world's-chart  that  was  prepared  in  1300,  where  this 
land  is  to  be  found  designated  under  the  name  Synribygd 
(southern  district).  It  is  to  be  found  in  the  manuscript  of  the 
so-called  Rymbegla,  and  is  undoubtedly  the  oldest  map  of  the 
globe  on  which  the  new  world  is  indicated." 


m 


' 


i^ 


i  ill' 
'11 


m 


64   The  Icelandic  CiscoVErers  of  America; 


<  One  of  the  older  Swi  dish  historians,  Strinuholm,  contributes 
.  a  valuable  paragraph :  "  The  whole  power  of  the  Northern 
Vikings  was  at  that  time  chiefly  directed  to  England,  Ireland, 
Scotland,  and  other  known  lands.  This,  besides  the  length  of 
the  distance,  diverted  attention  from  the  new  discoveries,  until 
finally  with  the  ceasing  of  the  Vising  expeditions,  all  knowledge 
of  the  strange  unknown  land  died  out,  so  that  only  saga  has 
preserved  the  recollection  of  it.  But  a  vague  report  of  the 
Norsemen's  voyages  of  discovery  penetrated  to  the  Norsemen  in 
France,  and  through  them  and  their  connection  with  Italy  pro- 
bably also  came  to  the  great  Italian  seaports,  and  accidentally 
conduced  to  awaken  and  sustain  a  supposition  of  unknown  lands 
lying  far  in  the  west.  So  much  is  certain,  however,  that  the 
northerly  portion  of  the  new  part  of  the  world  that  some 
centuries  afterwards  was  found  by  Columbus,  had  already, 
toward  the  olose  of  the  tenth  century,  been  discovered  by  the 
Scandinavian  Vikings,  and,  as  it  appears,  occupied  by  a  lot  of 
Scandinavian  setUers  as  late  as  the  twelfth  century." 

The  words  of  the  celebrated  Swedish  historian,  E.  G.  Geijer, 
must  not  be  omitted  in  this  connection ;  they  are  from  the  great 
work  "  Svea  rikes  hafder "  (The  Annals  of  the  Kingdom  of 
Sweden)  :  "Viking  expeditions,  and,  as  these  soon  ceased,  still 
more  commerce,  desire  of  knowledge,  war  and  court  service  led 
them  far  around,  and  became  to  them  the  means  of  at  once 
acquiring  wealth  and  glory ;  although  neither  royal  favour,  gifts, 
or  any  of  the  incentives  and  comforts  other  countries  offered, 
could  hinder  them  from  finally  returning  to  the  rocky  dales  of 
their  native  land.  But  about  one  hundred  years  after  the 
arrival  of  the  first  settlers  on  the  island,  others  went  over  from 
there  to  Greenland,  and  established  settlements  both  on  its  east 
and  west  coasts.  They  afterwards  found,  south  of  Greenland, 
other  coasts,  at  first  full  of  bare  clitfs,  farther  down  more  flat 
and  low,  finally  a  good  land  on  a  sound,  with  an  island  in  the 
north.    There  the  streams  were  rich  in  salmooi  a  kind  of  grain 


I   i 


OR,  Honour  to  whom  Honour  is  Due.     65 


grew  wild,  and  fiuit  that  resembled  grapes,  wherefore  the  first 
discoverer  called  the  land  Vinland  det  Goda.  Those  wlio  after 
him  sought  it,  also  encountered  natives,  who  bartered  furs  from 
them.  No  permanent  connection  arose  for  the  rest  with  this 
liind,  which,  however,  was  visited  by  a  Greenland  bishop  in  the 
ytar  1121 ;  but  without  doubt  it  is  some  part  of  the  coast  of 
North  America  wliich  appears  in  these  old  Icelandic  narratives, 
five  hundred  years  before  Columbus." 

All  Scandinavian  authors  on  this  subject  have  naturally 
availed  themselves  of  "  the  rolls  and  masses  of  parchments  in 
the  great  public  and  private  libraries  of  Copenhagen  and 
Stockholm."  Sometime  the  modern  Scandinavians  and  the 
Knglish-apeaking  race,  on  both  sides  of  the  Atlantic,  will  real  ze 
what  a  detriment  this  lingual  barrier,  which  has  separated 
nations  essentially  one  and  who  once  possessed  a  common 
tongue,  has  been  to  them. 

Thomas  Carlyle  does  not  say  much  about  the  discovery,  but 
it  is  to  the  point :  "  Towards  the  end  of  this  Hakon's  (Hakon 
Jarl)  reign  it  was  that  the  discovery  of  America  took  place 
(985).  Actual  discovery,  it  appears,  by  Eric  the  Red,  an  Ice- 
lander ;  conceining  which  there  has  been  abundant  investigation 
and  discussion  in  our  time." 

The  next  reigning  king  in  Norvv-ay,  it  will  be  seen,  took  a 
particular  interest  in  the  new  colony  in  Greenland.  "  Some 
years  afterwards  (after  colonizing  Greenland)  Leif,  the  son  of 
Eric  the  Red,  went  to  Norway,  whore  he  was  favourably 
received  by  the  n  igning  king,  Olaf  Tryggveson,  to  whom  ho 
described  the  country  in  such  favourable  terms  that  Olaf 
determined  to  sustain  the  now  colony.  Having  been  hims'  If 
recently  converteti  to  Christianity,  the  king  was  filled  with  great 
zeal  for  the  ))ropagation  of  the  laith.  He  persuaded  Leif  to  be 
baptized,  and  sent  him  back  to  Greenland  accompanied  with  a 
missionary,  by  whoso  efforts  his  father  Eric  and  the .  other 
colonists  were  converted."    'Ihis  occurs  in  Wheaton's  "  History 


iM 


I 


Ml 


66    The  Icelandic  Discoverers  of  America; 


of  the  Northmen,"  and  suffices  to  show  how  soon  both  royni 
and  ecclesiastical  recognition  of  the  existence  of  a  colony  in 
Greenland  followed  upon  the  establishing  of  the  colony.  Tlie 
same  is  true  of  Vinland.  As  many  of  the  Greeks  and  Romans, 
Pythias  of  Marseilles,  Plin>'  the  Elder,  Tacitus,  Procopius,  knew 
of  Scandinavia,  all  Scandinavian  events  were  likely  to  be  carried 
by  lively  rumour  to  the  south  of  E.urope,  and  as  Tacitus,  the 
great  Roman  historian,  had  already  represented  the  Sviones 
(Swedes)  as  "a  rich  and  powerful  maritime  nation,"  the  people 
of  Southern  Europe  were  prepared  to  hear  of  any  great  naval 
achievement  on  their  part,  whether  of  conquest  or  discovery, 
and  must  have  been  constantly  on  the  qui-vive, 

Snorre  Sturlesou  was  another  early  writer  who,  soon  after 
Adam  of  Bremen,  corroborated  the  testimony  of  the  Sagas 
relative  to  the  Icelandic  voyages  to  America.  As  the  former 
was  a  very  prominent  man  and  the  latter  a  canon  of  Bremen, 
both  of  these  works  must  have  been  known  in  Rome. 

As  a  matter  of  course,  the  Howitts  confirm  the  discovery  in 
their  "History  and  Romance  of  Northern  Europe:"  "But 
Europe  did  not  set  bounds  to  their  voyages  and  enterprises.  In 
861  they  discovered  Iceland,  and  soon  after  peopled  it.  Thence 
thoy  stretched  still  farther  west,  and  discovered  Greenland,  to 
which  they  origin;dly  gave  the  name  of  Gunbjornskar,  from 
Gunbjorn,  the  discoverer.  Spite  of  its  wretched  climate  they 
colonized  it,  and  proceeding  still  southward,  they  struck  upon 
the  coast  of  North  America,  as  it  would  appear,  about  the  State 
of  Massachusetts.  This  was  towards  the  end  of  the  tenth 
century,  that  is,  five  hundred  years  before  Columbus  reached 
that  country." 

Grenville  Pigott's  testimony  corresponds  with  the  rest :  "  The 
Norwegians  and  their  descendants  discovered  and  made  settlo- 
nients  in  Iceland,  Greenland,  the  Orkneys,  and,  as  has  beeii 
maintained  with  great  semblance  of  truth,  even  in  America 
itself." 


OR,  Honour  to  whom  Honour  is  Due.     6"; 


The  American  author,  Aarun  Gooanch,  seems  to  be  impatient 
of  any  further  discussion  on  the  point,  regarding  it  as  altogether 
superfluous,  for  he  says :  '  The  mjneral  reader  has  been  con* 
vinced  of  the  fact,  which  is  now  no  longer  disputed,  that  the 
Northmen  were  the  first  modern  discoverers  of  this  continent ;" 
while  Tuulmin  Smith  is  indignant  that  the  claim  of  Columbus 
should  ever  have  been  considered  at  all,  declaring :  "  He  was 
not  the  discoverer  of  America  in  any  sense  of  the  term  ;  he  did 
not  explore  the  American  continent,^*  Referring  to  Torfoeus, 
this  author  says  that  he,  Torfoeus.  derived  his  information 
from  the  original  authentic  sources,  and  that  "the  parch- 
ment manuscripts  that  contain  them  are,  at  this  moment,  in  a 
state  of  high  preservation."  This  fact  is  again  made  known  by 
Prof.  Rasmus  B.  Anderson,  in  his  "  America  not  discovered  by 
Columbus,"  whose  very  title  is  an  indignant  denial  of  the  claim 
of  the  Italian  adventurer ;  he,  too,  says :  "  The  manuscripts  in 
which  we  have  the  Sagas  relating  to  America  are  found  in  the 
celebrated  '  Codex  Flatoiensis,'  a  skin-book  that  was  finished 
in  the  year  1387.  This  work,  written  with  great  care,  and 
executed  in  the  highest  style  of  art.  is  now  preserved  in  its 
integrity  in  the  archives  of  Copenhaj;en,  and  a  carefully  printed 
copy  of  it  is  to  be  found  in  Mimer's  Library  at  the  University 
of  Wisconsin."  This  information  is  of  the  greatest  importance, 
for  it  may  be  necessary  further  on.  should  the  advocates  of 
Columbus's  claim  attempt  to  force  an  acknowledgment  of  it  from 
the  people  of  the  United  States,  tor  this  book  to  be  produced, 
as  irrefragable  testimony  to  the  fact  of  the  Norse  discovery  of 
America.  All  translations,  reprints,  abstracts,  may  be  doubted 
by  the  hypercritical,  by  the  class,  far  too  large,  who  are 
credulous  where  the^  suouid  ii^yt  oeiieve,  and  sceptical  where 
they  should — there  is  always  more  faith  than  reason  in  the 
Christian  world — hut  the  original  document  cannot  he  dnuhted. 

"Washington  Irving,  it  appeals,  did  not  investigate  the  sub- 
ject; if  he  had  done  this  before  commencing  his  "Life  of 


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68    The  Icelandic  Discoverers  of  America; 


Columbus,"  this  work  would  probably  not  have  been  written ; 
to  have  investigated  it  afterwards  would  have  exposed  him  to 
very  uncomfortable  feelings,  and  he  was  far  from  foreseeing  that 
the  admission  of  the  Columbian  discovery  would  be  fraught 
with  unmixed  evil  for  the  American  people.  He  is  candid 
enough,  however,  to  confess  that  he  did  not  look  into  the 
matter:  "There  is  no  great  improbability,  however,  that  such 
enterprising  and  i-oving  voyagers  as  the  Scandinavians  may  have 
wandered  to  the  northern  shores  of  America,  &c.,  and  if  the 
Icelandic  manuscripts,  said  to  be  of  the  thirteenth  century,  can 
be  relied  upon  as  genuine,  free  from  modem  interpolation  ^nd 
correctly  quoted,  they  would  appear  to  prove  the  fact." 

It  is  thought  that  the  lands  discovered  by  Bjarni  Herjulfson, 
the  actual  first  discoverer,  gathered  from  the  details  and  minute 
description  of  the  voyages,  were  Connecticut,  Long  Island, 
Rhode  Island,  Massachusetts,  Nova  Scotia,  and  Newfoundland 
"It  may,  perhaps,  be  urged  in  disparagement  of  these  dis- 
coveries," writes  Beamish,  **  that  they  were  accidental^  that 
Bjarni  Herjulfson  set  out  in  search  of  Greenland  and  fell  in 
with  the  eastern  coast  of  North  America,  but  so  it  was  also  with 
.  Columbus.  The  sanguine  and  skilful  Genoese  navigator  set 
sail  in  qtiest  of  ^.sia  and  discovered  the  "West  Indies ;  even 
when  in  his  last  voynge  he  did  reach  the  eastern  shore  of 
Central  America,  he  still  believed  it  to  be  Asia,  and  continued 
under  that  impression  till  the  day  of  his  death."  "Washington 
Irving  dwells  much  upon  this  curious  misconception  of  Columbus, 
and  the  bewilderment  and  confusion  evinced  in  the  *'  skilful 
navigator's  "  own  letters  is  amusing  in  the  extreme. 

Another  American  author,  Arthur  Oilman,  gives  expression 
to  a  common  objection  urged  by  unthinking  people  against  the 
Norse  discovery,  namely,  that  it  led  to  nothing,  produced  no 
results.  Unfortunately,  he  is  not  trying  to  combat  this  view; 
he  only  presents  it  as  his  own  :  "  "We  have  nothing  to  do  here 
with  the  expeditions  of  the  Northmen,  who  are  said  to  have 


the 
Col 


OR,  Honour  to  whom  Honour  is  Due.    69 


visited  America  in  the  eleventh  century,  for  admitting  that  the 
records  found  in  the  Sagas  are  true  statements  of  historic  facts, 
their  visits  did  not  lead  to  settlements  of  lasting  importance.  To 
Columbus  belongs  the  undivided  honour  of  first  making  real  the 
grand  idea  of  the  Western  World.  His  discovery  led  to  all  that 
has  since  been  achieved  on  our  continent.  . .  .  The  legends  of 
the  Northmen,  whom  the  Sagas  tell  ns  came  to  these  shores 
five  hundred  years  before  Columbus,  belong  rather  to  the  domain 
of  the  antiquary  or  the  poet  than  to  that  of  the  historian." 

To  render  this  assertion  true,  that  "  their  visits  did  not  lead 
to  settlements  of  lasting  importance,"  i*  is  necessary  to  blot  out 
of  the  past  the  written  statements  of  Adam  of  Bremen,  of 
Snorre  Sturleson,  and  of  Ion  Thordarson,  who  wrote  the  Sagas 
of  Eric  the  Eed  and  of  Thorfinn  Karlsefne,  in  the  "  Codex 
Flatoiensis  f  the  fact  that  the  rumours  of  these  vast  discoveries 
in  the  West  reached  every  seaport  in  southern  Europe,  as  well  as 
the  Eternal  City ;  the  fact  that  Gudrid,  the  wife  of  Karlsefne, 
visited  Rome  after  her  three  years'  sojourn  in  Vinland  ;  the  fact 
that  she  narrated  these  experiences  at  length  to  the  holy  fathers ; 
the  fact  that  Rome  had  appoiated  bishops  to  both  Greenland 
and  Vinland ;  the  fact  that  Columbus,  an  Italian  by  biith,  and 
naturally  aware  of  all  these  important  events,  went  to  Iceland, 
in  order  to  pursue  the  investigations  to  which  all  this  had  given 
him  the  clue.  After  his  visit  to  Iceland  he  made  out  to  find 
America,  as  any  one  else  could  have  found  it,  after  obtaining 
definite  directions.  That  there  was  an  interval  of  five  hundred 
years  between  the  first  colonization  and  the  subsequent  one  does 
not  alter  the  fact  that  the  first  one  led  to  the  last,  was  the 
direct  cause  of  it,  and  that  this  was  brought  about  by  a  close 
and  unbroken  sequence  of  events,  every  link  of  which  is  pre- 
served, that  posterity  may  demonstrate  just  what  grand  results 
have  ensued  from  the  discovery  and  intelligent  explorations  of 
the  Norsemen,  and  the  full  accounts  that  they  recrrd^d  of  these 
ftchievement^  in  Icelaod.  ...        .   ,  ,  i  '        » 


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70   The  Icelandic  Discoverers  ok  America  ; 


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■    ^                  1 

CHAPTER  IV. 

BOMAir    OATHOUO    OOONIZANOE    OF   THE   FACT  AT  THE  TIUB  Of 

''  THE  NORSE  DISOOVBRY. 

It  will  not  be  difficult  to  prove  that  the  wise-heads  in  the 
Eternal  City  were  aware,  almop^  g  soon  as  the  Icelanders  them- 
selves, that  some  of  the  adv  turous  sons  of  that  race  had 
pushed  their  explorations  clear  to  remote  lands  across  the  ocean, 
and  founded  colonies  there ;  it  would  be  far  more  difficult  to 
prove  that  they  did  not  know  it.  Fear,  envy,  hatred,  a  deep- 
seated  animosity,  made  them  observant  of  every  move  of  the 
Norsemen ;  these  were  the  only  obstacle  to  the  sacerdotal  plan 
of  universal  •  sovereignty,  of  th«  subjection  of  all  mankind  to 
the  rule  of  the  Cross,  all  Europe  was  Christianized  with  the 
exception  of  the  pagan  North  ;  the  circle  was  gradually  narrow- 
ing around  these,  and  escape  from  the  Papal  decree  and 
dominion  was  impossible.  Any  discovery  made  by  the  Norse- 
men of  new  lands,  in  whatever  quarter  of  the  globe,  meant  the 
establishing  of  a  new  stronghold  of  paganism,  if  this  discovery 
should  be  made  unbeknown  to  Rome.  It  does  not  require  any 
knowledge  of  Jesuitical  operations,  or  of  the  history  of  the 
Inquisition,  or  of  heretic- hunts  in  general,  to  show  one  how 
skilful  the  Roman  Catholic  mind  is  in  ferreting  out  things, 
what  a  meddlesome,  prying,  inquisitive,  impertinent,  well- 
trained  spy  it  is,  and  how  quick  it  is  to  scent  out  possible 
mischief  for  the  Church. 

Olaf  Tryggveson  had  already  been  drawn  into  the  fold  o| 


':  I 


OR,  Honour  to  whom  Honour  is  Due.     71 


this  Church,  tlianks  to  English  zeal,  when  Eric  the  Red  dis- 
covered Greenland ;  consequently  when  Leif  went  to  Norway 
with  full  reports  of  the  new  colony  and  its  flourishing  condition, 
King  Olaf  promptly  made  up  his  mind,  doubtless  with  the 
entire  concordance  of  the  Pope,  to  sustain  the  colony  and — 
establish  Christianity  there.  An  extract,  from  the  original 
narrative  in  the  "  Heimskringla  "  best  cieGcribes  this  :  "  The 
same  winter,  999 — 1000,  was  Leif,  the  son  of  Eric  the  Red, 
with  King  Olaf,  in  good  repute,  and  embraced  Christianity. 
But  the  summer  that  Gissur  went  to  Iceland,  King  Olaf  sent 
Leif  to  Greenland,  in  order  to  make  known  Christianity  there ; 
he  sailed  the  same  summer  to  Greenland.  He  found,  in  the 
sea,  some  people  on  a  wreck,  and  helped  them ;  the  same  time 
discovered  he  Vinland  the  Good,  and  came  in  harvest  to 
Greenland.  He  had  with  him  a  priest,  and  other  clerks, 
and  went  to  dwell  at  Brattahlid  with  Eric,  his  father.  Men 
called  him  afterwards  Leif  the  Lucky ;  but  Eric,  his  father, 
said  that  these  two  things  went  one  against  the  other,  inasmuch 
as  Leif  had  saved  the  crew  of  the  ship,  but  brought  evil  men 
to  Greenland,  nnmely  the  priests."  In  another  version,  from 
the  history  of  Olaf  Tryggveson,  is  added :  "  But  still  after  the 
counsel  and  instigation  of  Leif,  was  Eric  baptized,  and  all  the 
people  in  Greenland."  The  domestic  economy  of  the  Church 
of  Rome  was  not  such  that  there  could  have  been  a  new  dis- 
covery, a  colony  formed,  and  a  wholesale  conversion  of  the 
settlers  without  the  Pope  and  his  whole  establishment  knowing 
of  it,  still  less  when  the  "l^'orthern  barbarians"  had  made  the 
discovery,  formed  the  colony,  and  been  converted  to  the  true 
faith.  This  was  occasion  enough  for  a  public  thanksgiving 
and  when  this  successful  proselyting  had  been  due  to  a  power- 
ful monarch,  fired  with  a  holy  zeal,  and  who  did  not  stick  at 
trifles  nor  call  anything  a  crime  that  was  done  in  the  name  of 
religion,  this  felicitous  conjunction  of  events  was  not  a  thing 
to  pass  unnoticed. 


>  !" 


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f2    The  Icelandic  Discoverers  of  America; 


II 


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The  reader  will  remember  the  little  statement  by  Baron  von 
Humboldt  that  "  the  first  ;6ishop  of  (Jreeiiland,  Eric  Upsi,  an 
Icelander,  undertook,  in  1121,  a  Christian  mission  to  Vinland." 
Samuel  Laing  gives  details  of  the  spiritual  supervision  over 
Greenland,  a  supervision  scarcely  compatible  with  complete 
Papal  ignorance  of  the  existence  of  a  colony  there :  **  Tlio 
discovery  of  Greenland  by  the  Icelanders  about  the  year  98 1 , 
and  the  establishment  of  considerable  colonies  on  one  or  on  both 
sides  of  that  vast  peninsula  which  terminates  at  Cape  Fare- 
well,— in  which  Christianity  and  Christian  establishments, 
parishes,  churches,  and  even  monasteries  were  flourisliing,  or  at 
at  least  existing  to  such  an  extent  th:it  from  1124  to  1387 
there  was  a  regular  succession  of  bishops,  of  whom  seventeen 
are  named,  for  their  superintendence, — are  facts  which  no 
longer  admit  of  any  reasonable  doubt.  The  documentary 
evidence  of  the  Sagas, — which  gave  not  merely  va<iue  accounts 
of  such  a  discovery  and  settlement,  but  statistical  details,  with 
the  names  and  the  distances  from  each  other  of  farms  or  town- 
ships, of  which  there  were,  according  to  accounts  of  the  four- 
teenth century,  ninety  in  what  was  called  Vestribygd  or  the 
western  settlement,  with  four  churches,  and  one  hundred  and 
ninety  in  the  Eystribygd  or  eastern  settlement,  with  one 
cathedral,  eleven  other  churches,  two  towns,  and  three  or  four 
monasteries, — bears  all  the  internal  evidence  of  truth,  in  the 
consistency  and  simplicity  of  the  statements." 

Strinnholm  gives  a  full  description  of  the  settlements  in 
Greenland,  of  which  the  abstract  is  that  an  Iceland  man,  Eric 
Rode,  the  father  of  the  Leif  Ericsson  who  discovered  America, 
discovered  Greenland,  and  returned  in  985  with  five-and-twenty 
ships.  After  that  the  emigration  to  this  land  increased  every 
year.  "Within  a  short  time  large  tracts  of  the  country,  both 
in  the  east  and  west,  were  peopled  and  settled  by  Icelaii  'c 
or  Scandinavian  settlers.  The  land's  nature  and  situation 
divided  tUem  into  two  maiu  colonies,  which  were  called  Outer 


OR,  Honour  to  whom  Honour  is  Due.  73 


autl  Vester  f'ygff'ln.  Between  them  lay  a  desert,  several  days' 
jitumey  long.  The  chief  colony  was  in  Osterbyggdon,  which 
always  remained  the  most  populous  and  flourishing.  In  Vester- 
byggden  there  were  ninety  villages  or  hamlets,  with  four  or 
five  churches,  and  in  Osterbyggden  the  number  of  settlements 
went  up  to  one  hundred  and  ninety,  and  the  churches  to  twelve, 
and  there  were  also  several  cloisters  for  nuns  and  monks.  The 
Greenland  colony  flourished  for  four  hundred  yeats. 

Laing  gives  another  important  item  :  "  A  brief  of  Pope 
Nicholas  V.  in  1448,  to  the  Bishops  of  Skalholt  and  Holum  in 
Iceland,  states  that  his  beloved  children  dwelling  in  an  island 
called  Greenland,  on  the  utmost  verge  of  the  ocean  north  of 
Norway,  and  who  are  under  the  Archbishop  of  Dronth«!im, 
have  raised  his  compassion  by  their  complaint  that  after  having 
been  Christians  for  six  hundred  years,  and  converted  by  the 
holy  Saint  Olaf,  and  having  erected  many  sacred  buildings  and 
a  splendid  cathedral  on  said  island,  in  which  divine  service  was 
diligently  performed,  they  had  thirty  years  ago. been  attacked 
by  the  heathens  of  the  neighbouring  coast,  who  came  with  a 
fleet  against  them,  and  killed  and  dispersed  many,  and  made 
slaves  of  those  who  were  able-bodied ;  but  having  row 
gathered  together  again,  they  crave  the  services  of  pricste  and 
a  bishop."  >  -       ' 

There  was,  in  short,  a  regular  succession  nf  bishops  in 
Greenland  for  two  hundred  and  fifty  years.  We  h:«ve  already 
seen  that  mention  is  made  of  a  voyage  from  Greenland  to  Vin- 
la?id  as  late  as  the  year  1347.  The  next  link  in  this  most 
remarkable  chain  of  events  is  the  voyage  of  Gudrid,  Karl- 
sefne's  wife,  from  Vinland  to  Rome,  via  Iceland.  Her  visit  to 
the  holy  fathers  is  described  by  the  French  author,  Gabriel 
Gravier,  in  his  work  "Decouverte  de  FAm^rique  par  les 
Normands:"  "Quand  elle  eut  marie  Snorre,  Gudrida  fit  un 
pelerinage  ^  Rome.  Elle  fut  bien  reQue  et  raconta  certaine- 
ment  ses  voyages  dans  les  contrees  ultia  oc^auiques.    Rome 


1 1 

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74    The  Icelandic  Discoverers  of  America; 


ii 


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^tait  ties  attentive  aux  decouvertes  geographiques,  collectionnait 
avec  soin  les  cartes  et  les  r^cits  qui  lui  parvenaieiit.  Toute 
decouverte  semblait  un  agrandissement  du  domaine  papal,  un 
champ  nouveau  pour  la  predication  evangelique.  De  ce  qu'ils 
n'ont  laisse  dans  I'histoire  ecrite  aucune  trace  appreciable,  les 
recits  de  Gudrida  n'en  exercerent  pas  moiiis  sans  doute  une 
certaine  influence  sur  les  decouvertes  posterieures." 

Thus  the  part  that  a  woman  plays  in  bringing  about  the 
plagiar-stic  discovery  of  America  is  a  very  important  one,  and 
Gudrid,  Karlsefne's  high-born  and  intelligent  wife,  was  only 
excusable  in  that  she  did  not  realize  what  she  was  doing,  nor 
the  momentous  consequences  of  her  act,  when  she  carried  such 
valua})lo  tidings  to  Eome !  The  Sagas  relate  that  she  went 
there,  so  there  can  be  no  doubt  on  that  point.  In  the 
"  Voyages,"  as  translated  by  Beamish,  it  is  stated  thus :  "  But 
when  Snorre  was  married,  then  went  Gudrid  abroad,  and 
travelled  southwards,  and  came  back  again  to  the  house  of 
Snorre,  ner  son,  and  then  had  he  caused  a  church  to  be  built  at 
GldUuibsB ;"  and  in  the  synopsis  of  the  historical  evidence,  by 
Proftssor  Rafn,  it  is  stated  still  more  explicitly :  "  His  son, 
Snorre,  who  had  been  bom  in  Ajx*«rica,  was  his  successor  on 
this  estate.  When  the  latter  married,  his  mother  made  a 
pilgrimage  to  Rome,  and  afterwards  returned  to  her  son's  house 
at  Glaumboe,  where  he  had  in  the  meantime  ordered  a  church  to 
be  built.  The  mother  lived  long  as  a  religious  recluse." 
Gudrid  is  spoken  of  in  the  narratives  as  "  a  grave  and  dignified 
woman,  and  therewith  sensible,  and  knew  well  how  to  carry 
herself  among  strangers."  As  the  widow  of  a  highly-distin- 
guished man,  for  ThorHun  Karlsefne  was  "a  wealthy  and 
powerful  Icelandic  merchant,  descended  from  an  illustrious  line 
of  Danish,  Swedish,  Norwegian,  Irish,  and  Scottish  ancestors, 
some  of  whom  were  kings,  or  of  royal  blood,"  Gudrid  was  one 
to  carry  much  influence  and  must  have  been  listened  to  in  Rome 
with  the  most  profound  attention.     Her  wealth  also  conduced  to 


p. 
lied 


OR,  Honour  to  whom  Honour  is  Due.  75 

increase  the  respect  with  which  she  was  treated  by  a  set  of 
people  who  have  always  shown  the  nicest  discrimination  in  this 
regard,  and  when  she  afterwards  became  a  nun,  the  Church 
reaped  a  double  advantage  from  her  sojourn  in  Vinland. 
Gudrid  had  encouraged  her  husband  to  colonize  'Viidand,  having 
always  felt  the  deepest  interest  in  the  new  country,  of  which  so 
much  was  said  in  Greenland,  Aiid  with  the  full  prerogative  of  a 
Northern  woman,  a  woman  there  being  regarded  as  her  hus- 
band's equal,  took  an  active  part  in  the  management  of  aflfairs 
and  was  consulted  on  every  point,  consequently  she  was  woll 
versed  in  all  pertaining  to  Vinland  and  able  to  give  very  accurate 
information,  embracing  all  possible  topographical  and  geo- 
graphical details.  Exploring  expeditions  were  of  frequent 
occurrence  during  the  three  years  the  colonists  stayed  in  Vinland. 
By  a  singular  coincidence  Karlselne  himself,  as  stated  in  the 
"  Voyages,"  narrated  originally  the  events  that  occurred  on 
these  voyages,  this  in  Iceland,  and  his  wife  narrated  her 
experiences — in  Rome;  his  narrative,  when  committed  to 
writing,  destined,  eight  hundred  years  afterwards,  to  save  the 
land  he  attempted  to  colonize  from  the  disastrous  effects  of  his 
wife's  indiscretion  in  leading  the  covetous  gaze  of  the  Church 
to  a  laud  so  rich  in  promise  and  which  might  become  its  future 
empire." 

The  famous  geographer,  Malte-Brun,  states,  in  his  "  Histoire 
de  la  Geographie,"  that  Columbus,  when  in  Italy,  had  heard  of 
the  ]S"orse  discoveries  beyond  Iceland,  for  Rome  was  then  the 
world's  centre,  and  all  inlormation  of  importance  was  sent 
there.  It  was  this  some  ages  before,  nay,  it  was  more  than 
this,  it  was  a  great  whispering-gallery,  in  which  not  a  word  or 
sound,  uttered  in  any  part  of  the  world,  that  was  important  for 
the  Church  to  know,  was  lost. 

Besides  the  religious  means  of  cotnmunication  there  was  the 
commercial ;  the  Scandinavians  carried  on  an  enormous  com- 
merce and  their  peaceful  trading- vessels  as  well  as  war-dragons 


5S 


" 


i 


mM 


i: 


m 


76   The  Icelandic  Discoverers  of  America  ; 

riiii.'^ed  the  seas.  All  authors  note  this  with  wonder  and 
admiration.  To  cite  Pigott :  "  It  would  not  be  difficult  to  show 
that  the  Scandinavians,  from  the  eighth  to  the  eleventh 
century,  carried  on  a  more  active  commerce,  and  could  boast 
a  more  constant  and  extensive  communication  with  distant 
countries,  than  any  other  nation  of  Europe.  During  the  grr^ater 
part  of  this  period,  Eussia,  Sweden,  and  Denmark  were  the 
only  European  nations  which  had  any  regular  commerce  with 
the  East."  Despising  secrecy,  ond  having  no  motive  for  it, 
whatever  they  did  was  known  to  the  world ;  loving  fame  and 
glory,  seeking  these  as  the  liighest  earthly  good,  they  increased 
their  own  celebrity  by  every  means  in  their  power,  and  each 
man  in  his  endeavour  was  aided  by  the  rest  of  his  compatriots, 
the  national  pride  among  them  being  so  great  as  to  destroy 
all  envy,  the  besetting  sin  of  Christian  communities  from  that 
day  to  this.  The  greatness  of  each  individual  conduced  to 
the  greatness  of  his  country,  and  no  attempt  was  made  to 
suppress  it. 

The  Church  of  Rome  knew,  knew  all  that  they  had  accom- 
plished, and  every  detail  concerning  the  discovery  and  coloni- 
zation of  Iceland,  Greenland,  and  Vinland  1  "What  use  did  it 
make  of  this  knowledge  I 


OR,  Honour  to  whom  Honour  is  Due.  fi 


!  <\ 
I  !( 

;    :i 

w 


CHAPTER  V. 


ALL   THE   MOTIVES    FOR   THE    CONCEALMENT   AND    FRAUD. 


l\\. 


Yes,  what  use  did  the  Church  of  Rome  make  of  tliis  knowledge 
of  the  discovery  of  Greenland  and  Vinland  %  In  the  first  phice 
it  concealed  it.  As  far  as  is  known  no  writer  of  bouthern  or 
middle  Europe  seems  to  have  made  an  historical  record  of  the 
great  discovery  hy  the  Norsemen  except  Adam  of  Bremen,  until 
Snorre  Sturleson's  '*  Chronicle  of  the  Kings  of  Norway  "  was 
written,  in  the  thirteenth  century,  and  the  two  important  Sagas 
relating  exclusively  to  this  discovery,  contained  in  the  '*  Codex 
Flatoiensis,"  in  the  fourteenth.  Ortelius  accorded  to  them  the 
merit  of  this  discovery  in  1670,  Mylius  in  1611,  Grotius  in 
1642,  Divcone  in  164?.,  Montanus  in  1071,  Torfoeus  in  1705. 
We  know  that  Adam  of  Bremen  received  his  information  from 
King  Swein  of  Denmark,  and  had  very  strong  Northern  sym- 
pathies, writing  very  favourably  of  the  institutions  and  charac- 
teristics of  the  people,  especially  of  the  inhabitants  of  Sweden; 
Torfoeus  based  his  assertions  enti!<dy  on  the  aiithcntic  sources 
in  Icelniid,  and  it  is  presumable  that  the  other  early  authors 
tnontioned  did  IImi  same.  It  is  obvious  that  they  wrote  witl'  a 
certain  bnldiiess  and  proclaiiiKMl  a  theory  with  regard  to  the 
discovery  of  the  New  World  that  was  new  as  yet  to  their  con- 
temporaries. It  was  thus  essentially  the  historians  of  the,  North 
who  recorded  and  proclaimed  the  great  achieveiiient,  concerning 
which  the  monkish  chroniclers  were  ominously  silent. 
And  who  wrote  on  Scandinavian  mythology  or  gave  to  tho 


A  i: 


t  Pi  r 


'■ri' 


I 


ii'' 

Mill 


I 


78    The  Icki.andic  Discoverers  of  America; 


I'rt 


world  any  information  concerning  the  religion  of  Odin,  the 
manners  and  customs  of  the  people  who  had  a  heroic  age  while 
the  rest  of  Europe  was  steeped  in  slavery  and  cowardly  sub- 
jection, and  an  antiquity  as  worthy  of  bein*,'  called  classic  as 
that  of  Greece  itself  1 '  Suhm,  Nyerup,  Sohoning,  Grundtvig, 
Thorlacius,  Rafn,  Finn  Magnusen,  P.  E.  Miiller,  Grater, 
Abrahamsen,  and  others.  Thorlacius  and  Finn  Magnusen  are 
descendants  of  Thorfinn  Karlsefne,  as  are  also  Snorre  Sturleson 
and  the  famous  sculptor,  Thorwaldsen;  Rafn  is  a  Dane,  and 
there  are  evidently  no  Spaniards  or  Italians  in  this  list. 
Southern  writers,  it  is  plain,  held  the  Noithernnjythology  in  as 
little  esteem  as  the  Grecian ;  both  were  pagan,  and  paganism 
was  to  be  obliterated  from  both  literature  and  life.  We  are 
told  by  all  writers  on  this  subject,  with  one  voice,  that "  the 
zealous  promoters  of  Christianity  omitted  nothing  to  destroy 
all  relics  of  the  ancient  superstition."  The  resemblance  of  the 
Northern  mythology  to  the  Grecian  was  sufficient  in  itself  to 
kindle  Roman  Catholic  aversion  to  it,  and  when  it  produced  a 
similar  type  of  man,  the  rage  and  malice  of  the  morally- 
deformed  race  knew  no  bounds.  Could  not  Rolf,  the  Norman 
invader,  have  stood  as  the  model  of  an  old  Greek  hero  ]  It  is 
said  that  "he  was  mild  and  gentle  toward  the  poor  and 
oppressed ;  stern  and  terrible  toward  his  enemies ;  but  toward 
his  friends  faithful  and  so  generous,  that  he  for  them  spared 


;     I 
'i  I  ■ 


*  According  to  Pigott :  "Until  the  latter  end  of  the  sixteenth  century, 
all  knowledge  of  the  religion  of  heathen  Scandinavia,  possessed  by  other 
nations,  was  confined  to  what  could  be  gleaned  from  the  works  of  Paulus 
Diaconus,  Adam  of  Bremen,  and  Saxo  Grammaticus.  The  first  was  a 
Lombard  of  the  latter  end  of  the  eighth  century ;  the  second  a  Chuou  of 
Bremen,  who  wrote  in  the  eleventh  ;  and  the  last  the  secretai-y  of  Bishop 
Absalom  in  the  twelfth,  more  celebrated  for  the  elegance  of  his  Latiu  and 
for  his  classical  attainments  than  for  historical  correctness,  arid  whose 
information  respecting  the  Northern  mythology  is  obscured  and  disfigured 
by  his  practice  of  decorating  its  deities  with  the  inappropruite  names  of 
the  gods  of  Rome." 


il 


pp 

kse 
lof 


OR,  Honour  to  whom  Honour  is  Due.  79 

neither  gold  nor  other  valuables ;  wherefore  there  were 
assembled  with  him  the  most  illustrious  warriors  of  the  whole 
North,  and  all  the  neighbouring  kings  were  subordinate  to 
him."  And  Orvar  Odd  also,  of  whom  it  is  related  that  "  he 
believed  neither  in  Odin,  Thor,  or  any  other  divinity,  but  only 
in  his  own  strength  and  good -fortune,  which  is  said  to  have 
been  so  great,  that  if  he  only  hoisted  sail,  he  had  favourable 
winds  wherever  he  went."  The  learned  Swede,  Olaf  Rudbeck, 
in  his  famous  work,  the  "Atlantica,"  published  in  1702,  could, 
without  charge  of  being  fantastical  or  absurd,  demonstrate 
gravely  that  Sweden  was  Plato's  lost  Atlantis.  According  to 
t^o  modern  Swedish  author,  August  Strindberg,  "in  the  yeai 
1830  Geijer,  in  the  perusal  of  Homer,  comes  upon  the  same 
idea,  or  the  striking  resemblance  between  *  the  customs  (  f  the 
heroic  age  with  the  Greeks  and  Scandinavians.'  In  his  treatise 
of  the  same  name  he  shows  that  which  is  common  in  tlie 
people's  thought  and  way  of  life,  in  laws,  institutions,  and 
habits,  so  that  the  reader  is  astonished  that  he  has  not  before 
come  to  the  thought  himself  3  but  Geijer  draws  no  conclusions 
from  it."  We  know,  too,  from  history  that  the  Norsemen  were 
great  favourites  in  Greece,  the  only  country  in  Europe  that 
welcomed  them,  with  the  exception  of  Russia,  whose  people 
invited  the  Swedes  to  come  and  rule  over  them,  and  that  they 
were  the  chosen  body-guard  of  the  Greek  emperors. 

In  every  respect  the  ancient  Scandinavians  were  the  moral 
antitheses  of  the  Romans  or  Roman  Catholics  ;  and  it  is  no 
stretch  of  n  ason  to  say  that  they  were  the  moral  antidote  of 
the  Southern  poison,  a  fierce  remedy  used  by  Nature  against  the 
spread  of  the  evil,  and  yet,  as  events  proved,  ineffectual  after  all 
against  a  malaria  that  had  to  run  its  time  and  can  only  be  killed 
in  our  own  day  by  the  aid  of  the  very  element,  the  Norse  one, 
first  employed  against  it.  The  Scandinavians  were  brave  ;  fear 
was  as  unknown  to  them  as  courage  to  the  Roman  Catholics  : 
accordingly  we  find  on  the  one  hand  absolute  fearlessness  and 


i 


rH;' 


i:  < 


*^^ 


%m 


Vv 


So    The  Icelandic  Discoverers  of  America; 


& 


I    I 


independence,  on  the  other  absolute  servility.  Mallet  delineates 
this  striking  trait  of  the  Norse  character  most  admirably: 
"  Thus  strongly  moulded  by  the  hand  of  nature,  and  rendered 
hardy  by  education,  the  opinion  they  entertained  of  their  own 
courage  and  strength  mufit  have  given  the  peculiar  turn  to  their 
cliaracter.  A  man  who  thinks  he  has  nothing  to  fear,  cannot 
endure  any  sort  of  constraint;  much  less  will  he  submit  to  any 
arbitrary  authority,  vhich  he  sees  only  supported  by  human 
power,  or  such  as  he  can  brave  with  impunity.  As  he  thinks 
himself  not  obliged  to  court  any  one's  favour  or  deprecate  his 
roseiitraent,  he  scorns  dissimulation,  artifice,  or  falsehood.  He 
rogirds  these  faults,  the  effects  of  fuar,  as  the  most  degrading 
of  all  others.  He  is  always  ready  to  repel  force  by  force ;  hence 
he  is  neither  suspicious  nor  distrustful.  A  declared  enemy  to 
his  enemy,  he  attacks  opinly ;  he  confides  in,  and  is  true  to 
others  ;  generous,  and  sometimes  in  the  highest  degree  magnani- 
mous, because  he  places  his  dearest  interest  in  the  idea  he 
entcntains  and  would  excite  of  his  courage." 

I'uar  brings  so  many  other  vices  in  its  train,  that  when  it  is 
declared  that  the  Norsemen  were  utterly  devoid  of  fear,  one 
can  infer  that  they  were  not  superstitious  or  idolatrous,  not 
falHc,  not  tolerant  of  evil,  not  sophistical  in  their  way  of  rea- 
soning nor  given  to  the  suppression  of  their  convictions,  the 
reverse  of  which  is  shockingly  true  of  the  Koman  Catholics. 
Not  to  dwell  now  on  the  numerous  points  of  difference,  each  of 
which  fired  their  hostility  toward  each  other,  it  is  only  necessary 
to  mention  in  this  connection  the  Norsemen's  belief  in  love 
between  the  sexes  and  deep  reverence  for  it,  a  belief  that  the 
Christian  religion  immediately  expunged  from  its  ethics.  Max 
Nonlau  defines  this  in  particularly  keen  language:  "The 
Christian  morale  does  not  acknowledge  that  love  is  legitimate  ; 
th(^rerore  there  is  not  either,  in  the  institutions  that  are  pene- 
trated by  the  former,  any  place  left  for  love.  Marriage  is  now 
Bucli  an  institution,  its  character  has  betrayed  the  influence  of 


m 


OR,  Honour  to  whom  Honour  is  Due.     8i 


H 


y 

e 


the  Christian  morale.  According  to  the  theological  compre- 
hension, marriage  has  also  nothing  to  do  with  mean's  love  fox 
woman.  If  people  marry,  it  is  to  perform  a  sacrament,  not  to 
belong  to  each  other  in  love.  It  would  certainly  be  more 
agreeable  to  God  if  one  did  not  marry  at  all."  Among  the 
Northern  race,  on  the  other  hand,  romance,  constancy,  devoted 
love,  and  chivalrous  attachment  to  the  sex  so  highly  honoured, 
were  the  atmosphere  of  their  lives.  The  power  of  the  men  was 
doubled  by  the  fact  that  the  women  were  always  with  them  in 
love,  sharing  their  ambition,  stimulating  them  to  fresh  deeds  of 
glory  ;  while  in  the  South,  women  were  either  shut  up  in  the 
convents,  debauched,  or  turned  into  zeros  by  the  thraldom  of 
the  mediaeval  marriage,  in  which  women  were  only  to  bear 
children  and  bless  God.  "  In  paganism,"  to  cite  a  noble  para- 
graph from  Strindberg's  "  Swedish  People,"  "  woman  seems 
almost  to  have  been  man's  equal.  .  .  .  Woman  was  treated  by 
man  with  such  respect  and  acted  with  such  self-feeling  and 
freedom,  that  any  such  thing  in  our  enlightened  times  would 
be  considered  unheard  of.'"'  To  indicate  another  respect  in 
which  the  method  of  operation  in  the  life  of  the  Norsemen  was 
the  opposite  of  that  of  bis  natural  foe,  these  worked  to  bring 
about  material  prosperity,  not  for  a  favoured  class,  but  for  all 
the  other  race  worked  for  pauperism.  "  In  union  with  com- 
merce," writes  A.  E.  Holmberg,  "  these  celebrated  sea-voyjigea 
brought  here  a  perfectly  incredible  wealth,  of  which  it  was  not 
possible  K>r  OS  to  be  deprived  during  the  Christian  middle 
age?,  throng  the  pluniering  system  directe<l  «>{flinst  us  in  all 
respedB."*  The  great  Swedish  king,  Gustaf  Va«A,  had  a  three- 
fold twk :  to  free  his  iacd  from  the  Danish  yoke,  to  free  it 


1    , 


? 


I 


It  ' 


fi  1? 


■  H 


■  **  It  may  be  fairiy  conclnded,"  write*  ^"Sgott,  "  that  *  people  poBse^tnng 
■o  maey  sources  of  wealth  v^-\  wi  tac  continnnl  oommunicatioD  wUh 
the  must  civilized  portionb  uf  the  worki,  roal«i  uot  have  been  so  dnrkiy 
barbarous  as  Uie  wei4-grovBd«d  dafeattatiaB  «t  the  nonkish  ohrouiolei-:;.  ha* 
represented  them." 


F 


f-i'. 


MM 


82    The  Icelandic  Discoverers  of  America; 

from  the  jurisdiction  of  the  Pope  and  from  the  deep  poverty 
into  which  fivt.^  centuries  of  priest-rule  and  medisBvalism 
had  sunk  it.  The  well-known  traveller,  Horace  Marryat,  in 
his  "  One  Year  in  Sweden,"  affirms  that  poverty  was  unknown 
in  Sweden  until  the  introduction  of  Christianity  there.  * 

But  with  all  the  difference  in  disposition,  character,  moral 
status,  the  pagan  Norsemen  and  the  Roman  Catholics  had  the 
same  visible  aim — the  connues^  '^f  uhe  world.  This  made  them 
rivals.  One  desired  to  obtain  dominion  to  the  end  of  freedom, 
the  other  to  the  end  of  slavery.  Where  the  former  succeeded, 
they  established  free  institutions,  good  laws,  physical  and  mental 
well-being,  changing  by  a  rapid  metamorphosis,  once  the  monkish 
■hordes  were  subdued,  into  benign  and  able  statesmen ;  where 
the  latter  succeeded,  they  founded  cathedrals  and  monasteries, 
destroying  all  law  but  that  of  the  Church.  The  scope  of  their 
ambition  was  equal,  the  motives  of  it  utterly  dissimilar. 

No  wonder  then  that  Hastings  was  one  of  the  most  detested 
of  the  Northern  leaders  !  Hated  in  France,  perhaps,  as  is  alleged, 
"  on  account  of  the  extent  and  cruelty  of  his  ravages,"  but  hated 
still  more  because  of  the  extent  of  his  ambition,  which  had  made 
the  conquest  of  Rome  its  cherished  aim.  In  Wheaton's  words : 
"  Hastings  proposed  to  the  sons  of  Ragnar  Lodbrok  and  his 
other  followers  an  expedition  against  Rome,  of  whose  wealth 
and  splendour  they  had  heard  much,  without  knowing  precisely 
in  what  part  of  Italy  the  capital  of  the  Christian  world  was 
situate."     Holmberg's  "Norsemen  during  the  Pagan  Period" 

'  As  an  illustration  of  the  extent  to  which  Christianity  has  developed 
•^overty  I  quote  the  following  paiagrnph  from  Felix  Oswald's  " Seciet  of 
the  East:"  "  We  do  not  think  it  necessary  to  alleviate  the  distress  of  the 
poor  till  it  reaches  a  degree  that  threatens  to  end  it.  We  have  countless 
benevolent  institutions  for  the  prevention  of  outright  death,  not  one  bene- 
voient  enough  to  make  life  woHh  living.  Infanticide  is  now  far  more 
rigorously  punished  than  in  old  times.  We  enforce  every  child's  right  to 
live  and  become  a  humble,  tithe-paying  Christian ;  bat  as  for  its  claim  to 
live  happy,  we  refer  it  to  the  sweet  by-and-by." 


1&&.  'Ai. 


r ' 


OR,  Honour  to  whom  Honour  is  Due.  83 


contains  an  interesting  passage  relative  to  this  ;  after  citing  one 
of  the  ancient  poets  of  France  quoted  by  Cronholm  in  his 
"  Norsemen  in  Vester-viking,"  he  says  :  **  The  remarkable  part 
of  it  is  that  these  high  thoughts  are  put  in  Hastings'  mouth  by 
a  hdstih  writer,  who  lets  the  terrible  Hastings,  the  mostdreade«l 
leader  of  the  Norse  expeditions  of  the  ninth  century,  chant  o 
glory  as  the  highest  aim  for  which  he  had  striven,  and  that  for 
this  hundreds  of  thousands  had  fallen  under  his  sword.  But 
there  still  remained  a  higher  aim,  for  the  winning  of  which  he 
encouraged  his  warriors — namely,  to  let  all  the  kingdoms  of  the 
world,  which  lay  open  to  them,  behold  their  glory,  and  when 
they  placed  the  crown  of  Rome  on  Pjorn  Jernsida's  head,  their 
praise  with  his  should  resound  around  the  whole  circumference 
of  the  earth."  When  this  man  was  converted  it  was  indeed  an 
occasion  for  rejoicing  among  all  Romanists ;  as  Wheaton  says, 
"  this  was  an  object  of  the  highest  interest  to  the  people,  who 
had  been  so  long  terrified  and  distressed  by  his  incursions." 
This  same  author,  who  has  a  clear  perception  of  the  nature  of 
the  animosity  between  the  two  opposing  forces  of  Europe  in 
those  ages,  analyzes  it  still  further  by  saying  that  after  the 
cruelties  practised  by  Charlemagne,  '*  the  great  struggle  between 
the  North  and  the  South  assumed  the  character  of  a  religious 
as  well  as  national  war,  and  the  enmity  of  the  Scandinavian 
invaders  to  the  nations  they  had  plundered  and  vanquished 
could  only  be  appeased  by  their  own  conversion  to  Christianity, 
which  finally  put  a  period  to  their  predatory  incursions."  The 
tiaith  of  this  also  appears  in  some  words  of  "William  and  Mary 
Howitt's  :  "  "War  and  plunder,  therefore,  in  their  eyes,  so  far 
from  being  in  any  degree  criminal,  were  acts  of  glory  and  of  merit. 
"When  we  read  of  the  bloody  Danes,  who  were,  in  fact,  just  as 
often  Swedes  or  Norwegians,  we  should  remember  this,  and  more- 
over that  they  cherished  a  particular  hatred  to  Rome  and  to  the 
Christian  religion,  because  it  came  to  them  from  Rome  with 
all  its  monks  and,  what  appeared  to  them,  efifemiuate  doctrines." 

a  2 


Im 


t  : 


t  ■! 


iii.!- 


i 

AS 


84    The  Icelandic  Discoverers  of  America  ; 


If ' 


The  fact  cannot  be  too  strongly  emphasized  that  the  Chris- 
tianizing of  tliis  formidable  race  was  a  protective  measure  for  the 
safety  of  the  Romanists,  not  in  any  sense  a  kind  or  philanthropic 
work  for  the  good  of  the  Norsemen,  for  either  their  temporal  or 
spiritual  welfare.  The  authors  just  quoted  say  with  great  force  : 
'*  It  is  not,  perhaps,  so  much  an  overwhelming  number  of  tlicse 
Northmen,  as  the  new  spirit  they  brought  with  them,  that  mixed 
with  and  changed  the  social  elements  of  the  countries  they 
settled  in."  This  spirit  could  only  be  destroyed  by  transforming 
it  into  the  Christian  spirit.  The  only  country  in  which  there 
has  been  no  admixture,  to  speak  of,  of  the  Norse  spirit,  is  Spain, 
and  Buckle,  as  we  well  know,  describes  the  state  of  things  there 
with  absolute  correctness  in  this  passage :  "  These,  then,  were 
the  two  great  elements  of  which  the  Spanish  chai  acter  was  com- 
pounded—  loyalty  and  superstition ;  reverence  for  their  kings 
and  reverence  for  their  clergy  were  the  leading  jirinciples  which 
influenced  the  Spanish  mind,  and  governed  the  march  of  Spanish 
history."  It  is  obvious  that  the  Church  of  Rome  liad  a  super- 
human work  before  it  to  reduce  Scandinavia  to  such  a  condition 
as  that.  The  time  it  took  to  bring  about  consent  to  baptism,  a 
concession  which  did  not  mean  as  much  as  it  seemed,  was  ii- 
calculable ;  Laing  mentions  the  startling  fact  that  "  this  last 
remnant  of  paganism  among  the  European  people  existed  in 
vigour  almost  live  hundred  years  after  Christianity  and  the 
Romish  Church  establishment  were  difi'usi  d  in  every  other 
country."  One  reason  of  this  was,  as  averred  by  Gt-ijor,  that 
the  Christian  ethics  were  so  unlike  the  pagan,  and  put  bonds 
upon  the  individual  freedom  to  which  the  Northerner  was  not 
willing  to  subject  himself ;  another  was  that  the  Scandinavians 
had  no  respect  for  the  people  who  professed  Christianity,  no 
admiration  for  their  institutions ;  another,  that  there  was  so 
very  little  superstition  in  their  nature  for  the  priests  to  work 
upon.  The  foUowing  anecdotes  illustrate  this:  "When  St. 
Olaf  proposed  to  Gauka  Thor  to  be  baptized,  the  chief  answered 


OR,  ttoNOtJR  to  WHOM  Honour  is  Due.     85 


that  hi!  ami  Ids  eomrailes  were  neither  Christians  nnr  hi  atli.nP, 
but  trusted  to  their  own  courage,  strength, and  fortune,  with  whioh 
until  then  they  had  had  every  reason  to  be  satisfied  ;  but  if  the 
king  was  very  anxious  they  should  believe  on  some  god,  they 
w<»re  as  well  content  to  believe  in  the  white  Christ  as  on  any  other, 
Arnliot  Gellina  told  the  same  king  that  he  had  always  been 
wont  to  put  his  trust  in  nothing  but  his  own  strength,  \\'liich 
had  never  failed  him,  and  that  he  had  now  thought  to  trust  in 
the  king;  but  since  he  (the  king)  was  so  desirous  that  he  sliould 
be  baptized,  although  he  was  not  aware  of  what  the  white  Christ 
was  capable  of  performing,  for  the  king's  sake  he  would  believe 
on  him."  Pigott,  who  relates  these  highly  characteristic  stories, 
continues  :  **  It  was  also  said  of  Hrolf  Krake  and  his  warriors, 
at  a  much  earlier  period,  that  they  never  otlered  to  the  -jods, 
but  relied  on  their  own  strength.  Some,  although  uninstnicted 
in  the  doctrines  of  Christianity,  rejected  the  superstition :^  of 
'^heir  countrymen  from  more  exalted  motives."  So  he  justly 
arg  les  in  this  wise  :  "  The  difficulties,  therefore,  which  the  first 
preachers  of  Christianity  in  ocandinavia  had  to  encounter,  may 
be  attributed  rather  to  the  contempt  in  which  these  la^\  less 
warriors  held  a  creec  ^hich  thr<'  itened  them  with  a  life  of  peace 
and  inactivity,  than  i,  barbarous  ignorance,  <^>r  even  to  any 
big(jted  adherence  to  their  ancient  religion."  In  short,  the 
ancient  Scandinavi  ms,  like  the  ancient  Greeks,  left  the  worship 
of  the  gods  to  the  sti '  lerstitious  lower  class"«i.  It  was  reserved 
for  the  Christian  nations  of  modern  times,  and  the  free  United 
States,  to  elevate  this  idttlatry  ii.to  the  devout  practice  uf  retined 
and  cultivated  people. 

Laing,  who  has  made  a  deep  study  of  this  subject,  states  that 
*' the  churches  or  temples  of  Odin  appear  to  have  had  no  con- 
secrated <»rde-:  of  men  like  a  priesthood  set  apart  for  administer- 
ing in  relii^iouM  rites,"  and  that  "  public  worship  under  any  form, 
or  private  or  liousehold  devotion  in  the  Odin  religion,  cannot 
be  distinctly  traced  in  the  Sagas."    In  conuuenting  un  thi.<<,  h« 


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23  WEbY  MAIN  STREET 

WEBSTER,  N.Y.  14580 

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86    The  Icelandic  Discoverers  of  America  ; 


ii 


ii-f 


III    ; 

iff 


says :  "  Wo  fiud  in  the  North  very  few  remains  of  temples  j  no 
statues,  emblems,  images,  symbols ;  was  it  actually  more  spiritual 
than  any  other  systems  of  paganism,  and,  therefore,  less  material 
in  its  outward  expression  1 " 

A  comparison  of  the  pagan  festival  Jul  with  the  Christian 
festival  Yule  (Christmas)  after  the  Bomanists  had  incorporated 
it  into  their  system  and  remodelled  it,  will  illustratt  he  difference 
in  the  mode  of  worship,  as  it  is  called,  of  these  t^u  races.  The 
Norse  festival  is  thus  described  by  Beamish :  '*  Yule  was  a  pagan 
festival,  celebrated  in  honour  of  Thor,  at  the  beginning  of  Feb- 
ruary, when  the  Northmen's  year  commenced,  and  they  offered 
sacrifices  for  peace  and  fruitful  seasons  to  this  deity ;  it  lasted 
fourteen  days.  .  .  .  After  the  introduction  of  Christianity,  the 
anniversary  of  Yule  was  transferred  to  Christmas,  which  is  still 
called  by  that  name  throughout  Scandinavia."  And  by  Mallet 
thus  :  "  There  were  three  great  religious  festivals  in  the  year. 
The  first  was  celebrated  at  the  winter  solstice.  They  called  the 
bight  on  which  it  was  observed  the  Mother  Night,  as  that  which 
produced  all  the  rest ;  and  this  epoch  was  rendered  the  more  re- 
markable as  they  dated  from  thence  the  beginning  of  the  year, 
which  among  the  Northern  nations  was  computed  from  one  winder 
solstice  to  another,  as  the  month  was  from  one  new  moon  to  the 
next.  This  feast,  which  was  very  considerable,  was  named  Jul, 
and  was  celebrated  in  honour  of  Frej,  or  the  sun,  in  order  to 
obtain  a  propitious  year  and  fruitful  seasons."  j  ji 

So  little  weight  did  the  Northern  people  attach  to  baptism, 
when  the  proselyters,  by  dint  of  arduous  etforts,  had  at  Vast  got 
them  that  far,  *hat  a  story  is  toM  of  one  man  who  was  baptized 
twenty  times.  As  Laing  observes  :  "  Christianity  in  Scandi- 
navia seems,  in  the  eleventh  century,  to  have  consisted  merely 
in  the  ceremony  of  baptism,  without  any  instruction  in  its 
doctrines."  It  seemed  in  many  instances  t::  have  been  merely 
the  deference  that  well-bred  people,  when  travelling  in  foreign 
lands,  pay  to  the  natives  of  the  country  they  happen  to  be  in, 


ir 


II I  ! 


OR,  Honour  to  whom  Honour  is  Due.     87 


:  to 


in, 


to  judge  from  this  remark  of  Wheaton's :  *'  Dn  their  return  to 
their  native  country,  they  made  no  scruple  to  conform  to  the 
external  practices  of  heathenism,  believing  that  Thor,  and  the 
other  deities  of  the  North,  were  to  be  adored  as  the  local  gods  of 
Norway,  in  the  same  manner  as  Christ  was  worshipped  in 
England  as  the  national  god  of  that  country." 

However,  converted  they  were,  after  a  long  struggle  and  a 
sanguinary  one.  Expressing  his  satisfaction  over  this^  as  befitted 
a  canon,  Adam  of  Bremen  says  naively  :  '*  For  the  rest,  the 
opinion  has  already  become  prevalent  with  the  people^  that 
the  god  of  the  Christians  is  the  strongest,  and  that  one 
is  often  cheated  by  the  other  gods,  but  that  this  god  is 
always  near  as  a  sure  and  timely  help."  It  is  not  clear  whether 
by  "god"  he  means  Christ  or  the  SuprcMue  Bt;ing,  but,  at  any 
rate,  it  is  plain  that  the  new  reli^'ion  was  an  experiment,  that  it 
was  only  taken  on  trial.  The  followiiif,'  paragraph  of  Oswald's — 
"  The  so-called  Christian  countries  of  Northern  Europe  were  not 
converted  before  the  eleventh  century  of  our  era,  and  revolted  in 
time  to  prevent  their  utter  ruin" — shows  that  the  experiment  was 
not  altogether  a  satisfactory  one,  and  that  the  old  troubles  had 
broken  out  afresh.  To  make  a  condensed  statement  of  the  first 
protest  of  the  Scandinavian  North  against  the  supremacy  of 
Rome,  Gustaf  Vah.i,  in  Sweden,  again  demonstrated  the  opposite 
tendency  of  the  North  from  that  of  the  South  by  eradicating 
Roman  Catholicism  in  Sweden  simultaneously  with  Philip  II. 'a 
eradication  of  Protestantism  in  Spain.  In  about  ten  years  the 
last  vestige  of  the  Reformation  disappeared  in  Spain,  but  in  les» 
time  than  that  the  spirit  of  Romanism  was  banished  irom 
Sweden,  and  Norway  and  Denmark  were  scarcely  less  vigorouf* 
in  expelling  it.  Philip  II.  declared  that  "  it  was  betloi 
not  to  reign  at  all  than  to  reign  over  heretics  ; "  Gustaf  I.  de- 
clnred  by  his  acts  that  he  would  only  reign  over  free  men,  and 
that  neither  he  nor  his  subjects  owed  allegiance  to  Rome. 

On  the  presumption,  however,  that  the  conversion  of  the 


i 


. 


iiH 


88    The  Icelanidtc  Discovehers  of  Amemcaj 


\i 
if 

i 


pngan  J^orth  to  Christianity  was  a  genuine  one,  the  Bomish 
Church  proceeded  to  obhterate  all  traces  of  this  abominable 
paganism  which  had  so  long  defied  it;  its  notorious  acts  in 
Greece  were  repeated  throughout  the  length  and  breadth  of 
Scandinavia;  submission  to  it  had  naturally  not  abated  its 
hit  red,  there  was  still  retribution  to  wreak  on  the  contumacious 
race  that  had  baffled  it,  scorned  it ;  all  the  descendants  of  this 
race,  for  generations  to  come,  should  be  made  to  feel  the  im- 
placable wrath  of  the  outra<^'ed  power  that  has  its  seat  in  the 
Eternal  City.  Having  control  of  literature,  a  ready  means 
oflfered  itself.  The  Church  could  corrupt  history,  brand  the 
memory  of  the  Norsemen  eternally,  by  representing  all  their 
deeds  as  those  of  ferocious,  bloodthirsty  barbarians,  by  accusing 
them  of  such  foul  crimes  as  would  pale  the  crimes  of  the  Church, 
and  by  systematically  concealing  all  achievements  of  theirs,  of 
whatever  nature,  that  would  awaken  the  admiration  or  gratitude 
of  posterity.  The  discovery  of  the  New  World  by  the  Noi'se- 
men  was  the  one  event  that  must  most  sedulously  he  concealed  ! 

"We  can  note  Papish  operations,  step  by  step,  through  the 
centuries;  the  conversion  or  amalgamation  of  the  Northern 
pagans  into  Christian  subjects,  of  free  soil  into  Church  territory, 
of  pagan  festivals  into  religious  holidays,  of  Norse  deeds  into 
the  means  of  gratifying  the  Eomanists'  inordinate  desire  for 
power, — this  is  the  fell  work  that  has  been  accomplished  through 
the  ages.  And  the  consummation  of  this  iniquity  was  reserved 
for  the  nineteenth  century,  to  be  out-worked  on  American  soil  1 

All  authors  and  historians  not  party  to  the  plot,  those  of 
liberal  ideas,  and  who  advocate  the  truth,  have  openly  regretted 
that  history  has  been  made  the  means  of  concealing  or  perverting 
the  truth  in  regard  to  the  great  religious  strug^'la  of  Europe, 
and  particularly  of  the  Northern  race  who  so  valiantly  defended 
the  liberty  that  the  sane,  natural,  healthy  man,  in  possession  of 
his  full  powers,  holds  so  dear,  against  the  combined  assaults  of 
the  anii-naturali8t8,—Xla»  bust  name,  fdl  things  considered,  that 


OR,  Honour  to  whom  Honour  is  Due.  89 

has  been  given  to  the  Roman  Catholic  or  Christian  body.  This 
definition  haa  been  applied  by  Felix  Oswald,  who  in  further 
elucidation  says,  "  Only  anti-natural  religions  have  achieved 
that  deep  abasement  of  the  physical  type  of  our  race  which  wo 
see  in  China  and  Southern  Europe,"  and  expresses  an  undeniable 
tmth  in  the  assertion  :  *'  The  night  of  the  Middle  Ages  was  not 
the  natural  blindness  of  unenlightened  barbarians,  but  an 
unnatural  darkness,  maintained  by  an  elaborate  system  of 
spiritual  despotism,  and  in  spite  of  the  fierce  struggles  of  many 
light-loving  nations."  But  have  the  Romanists  themselves  ever 
deplored  this  horrible  condition  of  darkness  and  degradation  1 
Has  not  Spain,  the  spot  where  the  black  darkness  concentrated, 
been  held  up  as  the  model  of  Christian  excellence,  for  other 
nations  to  emulate  1  Has  any  effort  ever  been  made  by  the 
Church  of  Rome  to  abate  this  darkness,  to  infuse  health  into 
its  morally-diseased  votaries  1  Has  not  this,  in  every  instance, 
been  the  work  of  heresy  !  The  Romanists  did  not  even  suspend 
their  efforts  when  the  limit  of  human  misery  seemed  to  have  been 
reached ;  there  was  still  an  unattained  depth  beyond,  for  which 
they  strove  with  a  hellish  frenzy  !  In  Os\.  aid's  words  :  "  But 
the  efiforts  of  the  spoilers  did  not  cease  ;  and  it  may  be  doubted 
if  the  Caucasian  race  will  ever  wholly  recover  from  the  eflfects  of 
a  thousand  years'  atttnnpt  to  lure  their  children  from  earth  to 
ghost-land,  to  poison  their  minds  with  the  dogmas  of  pessimism, 
to  sacrifice  the  pagan  Elysium  to  the  Buddhistic  Nirvana." 

The  caution  cannot  be  repeated  too  often  against  placing 
credence  in  monkish  records  of  tlie  acts  of  their  Scandinavian 
enemies;  several  warnings  are  given  by  Beamish  :  "From  tlio 
eighth  to  the  eleventh  centuries  theNi>rthmen  carried  on  a  more 
active  commerce,  and  a  more  extensive  maritime  communication 
with  forei'jn  countries  than  any  other  nation  in  Europe.  Such 
intercourse  appears  quite  incompatible  with  that  extreme 
degree  of  ignorance  and  barbarity  in  which  so  many  writers 
would  clothe  ail  their  actions  and  enterprises ; "  and  in  another 


m 
'A 


vtS 


'■  '11* 


V':ll' 


lit 


i"^ 


90    The  Icelandic  Discoverers  of  America  ; 


if 


place  he  writes :  "  We  should  receive  with  caution  all  statements 
upon  a  subject  to  which  national  or  religious  feeling  is  likely  to 
have  given  an  exaggerated  colouring.  Our  knowledge  of  the 
excesses  of  the  Northern  invaders  is  chiefly  derived  from  the 
evidence  of  monkish  chroniclers,  whose  Christian  faith  and 
feelings  were  no  less  outraged  by  the  deeds  than  the  infidelity 
of  the  pagan  ravagers,  and  who,  writing  in  many  cases  long 
after  the  events,  would  naturally  aid  defective  evidence  with  a 
fervid  zeal  and  fertile  imagination."  Buckle  ha"  been  peculiarly 
observant  of  this  uniform  vitiation  of  historical  accounts,  and 
traces  the  operation  of  the  same  causes  even  up  in  the  I^orth : 
"But  in  the  ninth  and  tenth  centuries  Christian  missionaries 
found  their  way  across  the  Baltic,  and  introduced  a  knowledge 
of  their  religion  among  the  inhabitants  of  Northern  Europe. 
Scarcely  was  this  eflfected,  when  the  sources  of  history  began  to 
be  poisoned."  His  "  History  of  Civilization  "  is  no  more  nor 
less  than  the  history  of  the  conflict  of  science,  invention, 
research j  enlightenment,  with  the  theological  system  that  was 
against  everything  but  bigotry  and  idolatry,  substituting  the  de- 
basing worship  of  the  Cross  for  the  true  aim  of  human  existence. 
The  concealment  of  the  Norse  discovery  of  America  was  the 
negative  part  of  the  Romanists'  work ;  when  Christopher 
Columbus,  a  nameless  Italian  adventurer,  appeared  upon  the 
scene  of  action,  their  positive  work  began,  namely,  the  sub- 
stitution of  another  discoverer  for  the  original  ones,  and  a 
transfer  of  all  the  benefits  of  the  Norse  discovery  to  the  Roman 
Catholic  power :  the  foundation  had  been  laid  j  they  would  now 
raise  the  superstructure.  Columbus  was  a  particularly  obscure 
man  ;  no  one  knew  where  he  was  born, — "  the  question  of 
Columbus'  birthplace  has  been  almost  as  hotly  contested  as 
that  of  Homer,"  remarks  Arthur  Helps  :  no  one  knew  wha«<  iu» 
had  been  doing  in  Italy  before  he  went  to  Spain,  after  the  itxvm 
of  making  a  great  discovery  had  taken  full  possession  of  him,  and 
of  course  the  Church  kept  its  own  counsels.     That  august 


of 
as 

md 


OR,  Honour  to  whom  Honour  is  Due.  91 

institution  has  always  been  blessed  with  a  long  memory  and 
was  not  likely  to  have  forgotten  Gudrid's  visit,  nor  the  various 
reports  of  the  Norsemen's  voyages  that  had  reached  Rome  as  the 
world's  centre,  and  been  duly  recorded,  and  the  recollection  of 
the  hated  fact,  which  might  after  all  be  turned  to  account,  had 
been  burned  into  the  minds  of  Popes  and  prelates  for  those  five 
centuries  by  the  anxious  labour  of  preventing  the  remotest 
allusion  to  it  from  getting  into  any  annals. 

Columbus  made  his  way  to  Spain,  whether  ^dtb  or  without 
instructions  from  Rome  may  be  left  to  conjecture.  "  Spain  at 
that  time,"  as  the  Roman  Catholic  author,  Barry,  proudly 
boasts,  "  commanded  the  destinies  of  the  whole  Catholic  world ; 
her  struggle  against  the  Koran,  the  zeal  of  her  crusade  under- 
taken on  the  soil  of  Europe,  excited  the  sympathies  of  the  whole 
Christian  world."  Columbus  went  to  Spain,  from  Italy,  after 
he  had  made  his  visit  to  Iceland.  It  is  altogether  contrary  to 
reason  to  infer,  because  this  trip  to  Iceland  was  kept  a  profound 
secret  to  the  world,  that  the  heads  of  the  Church  were  not  privy 
to  it.  This  knowledge  of  theirs  of  his  visit  to  the  place  where 
all  the  information  concerning  the  Norse  voyages  was  preserved, 
his  access  to  the  archives  of  Iceland,  his  consultations  with 
Christitm  prelates  there,  especially  Bishop  Magnus,  who  could 
put  him  in  the  way  of  learning  all  he  required, — all  this  was  the 
cause  of  the  absolute  secrecy  maintained.  There  is  more  than 
sufficient  evidence  that  the  wily  Italian  obtained  all  that  he 
sought  in  Iceland ;  his  discovery  of  America  proves  that ;  hence 
to  go  to  Spain  was  his  next  practical  move,  and  entirely  in 
order.  He  found  himself  one  day,  whether  by  chance  or  no 
can  be  imagined,  at  the  gates  of  the  monastery  of  La  Rabida^ 
in  Andalusia,  the  guardian  of  which,  Juan  Perez  de  Marchina, 
ha<i  formerly  been  the  confessor  of  Queen  Isabella ;  if  this  was 
only  a  chance,  it  must  be  confessed  that  it  was  an  exceedingly 
lucky  one  1  Barry  describes  the  meeting ;  the  mere  thought 
of   it  kindles  his  Roman  Catholic  ardour:    ''He  welcomed 


iff  II 
w 


i 


'I'll 

m 


93    The  Icelandic  Discoverers  of  America  ; 


fraternally  the  stranger,  towards  whom  he  felt  a  sudden 
attraction.  A  kind  of  intimacy  immediately  took  place  between 
them;  for  already  before  their  meeting  there  pre-existed 
between  them  the  strictest  conformity  of  ideas  that  can  unite 
two  intelligences.  The  Father  Superior,  after  the  first  disclosures 
of  Columbus"  (what  were  those  disci siires  ?),  "invited  him  to 
remain  with  him,  the  present  moment  not  being  favourable  to 
present  his  project  to  the  Court." 

These  are  very  strong  words  :  "  the  strictest  conformity  of 
ideas  that  can  unite  two  intellijeiices  ;  "  an  invitation  after  the 
first  disclosures  of  Columbus  to  remain  there.  Kow  an  exjjosition 
of  Columbus' scientific  theories  (so  called)  as  to  a  probable  land 
in  the  Western  ocean  would  have  required  hours,  and  after  the 
hours  spent  in  this  way,  the  strictest  conformity  of  ideas  would 
not  have  been  induced,  for  the  strictest  conformity  of  ideas  was 
not  wont  to  ensue  upon  suph  a  talk  between  a  scientist  and  the 
Superior  of  a  monastery,  assuming  Columbus  to  have  been  a 
scientist.  After  the  first  disclosures, — had  these  been  merely  a 
rough  sketch  of  a  profound  scientific  theory,  there  would  not 
have  been  an  invitation  which  meant  so  much,  that  meant,  in 
fact,  active  coopenition ;  but  assuming  as  an  hypothesis,  that 
Columbus  informed  Juan  Perez  briefly  of  his  visit  to  Iceland 
and  the  satisfactory  results  from  it,  of  the  absolute  certainty  that 
there  was  another  world  lying  across  the  ocean,  and  of  the  great 
good  that  would  accrue  to  the  Church  if  this  land  was  taken 
possession  of  through  his  (Columbus')  instrumentality,  the 
pr«jmpt  interest  and  zeal  of  the  priest  will  be  fully  accounted 
for.  This  is  only  a  surmise,  to  be  sure,  but  a  surmise  that  haa 
a  startling  resemblance  to  truth.  ' 

But  to  continue  the  narrative  :  "  Between  Columbus  and  his 
host  nobody  intervened.  The  confidence  of  Father  Juan  Perez 
was  complete,  because  the  demonstration  was  peremptory, — 
because  the  grand  mission  of  the  stranger  was  manifest 
to    him.  ...  He    heard,    he     comprehended,    he    believed. 


OR,  Honour  to  whom  Honour  is  Due.  93 


us 
iress 

rest 
led. 


.  .  .  The  Franciscan  recognized  in  Columbus  the  mark  of  a 
providential  election."  Doubtless,  for  Columbus  exhibited 
the  craft  and  secretiveness,  the  unscrupulous  ambition  of  the 
religious  body  to  which  he  belonged ;  he  had  proved  liimself 
the  proper  man  for  the  work,  the  most  audacious  fraud  that  was 
ever  perpetrated,  and  the  Church  accepted  him  unconditionally  1 
Columbus  was  a  man  who  did  not  let  his  left  hand  know  what 
his  right  hand  did,  and  this  was  a  prime  qualification ! 

He  obtained  substantial  aid  in  his  huge  undertaking — it  was 
a  huge  undertaking  to  push  this  scheme  through  on  frail 
scientific  grounds,  on  account  of  the  necessity  of  concealing  the 
true  grounds  from  all  but  a  few  chosen  confidants — from  the 
Grand  Cardinal  of  Spain,  Pedro  Gonzalez  de  Medona,  through 
whose  intervention,  according  to  Barry's  allegation,  he  procured 
an  audience.  Washington  Irving,  however,  states  that  it  was 
Luis  de  St.  Angel,  receiver  of  the  ecclesiastical  revenues  in 
Aragon,  who  overcame  the  scruples  of  the  queen,  and  gives  his 
eloquent  appeal :  "  He  reminded  her  of  how  much  might  be 
done  for  the  glory  of  God,  the  exaltation  of  the  Church,  and 
the  extension  of  her  own  power  and  dominion.  What  cause  of 
regret  to  her,  of  triumph  to  her  enemies,  of  sorrow  to  her 
friends,  should  this  enterprise,  thus  rejected  by  her,  be  accom- 
plished by  some  other  power !  He  reminded  her  what  fame 
and  dominion  other  princes  had  acquired  for  their  discoveries  ; 
here  was  an  opportunity  to  surpass  them  all.  He  entreated  her 
Majesty  not  to  be  misled  by  the  assertion  of  learned  men,  that 
the  project  was  the  dream  of  a  visionary.  He  vindicated  the 
judgment  of  Columbus,  and  the  soundness  and  practicability  of 
his  plans."  This  he  could  safely  do,  for  he  had  the  strongest 
material  grounds  for  relying  on  Columbus'  judgment,  or  rather 
the  trustworthy  evidence  that  Columbus  had  brought  with  him 
from  Iceland  of  the  existence  of  the  New  World. 

Then  follows  the  affecting  scene  that  has  elicited  so  much 
admiration  for  Queen  Isabella ;  "  With  an  enthusiasm  worthy  of 


■i  I 


4\ 


fl|'i!^ 


i' 


1   \'!  ! 


94    The  Icelandic  Discoverers  of  America; 


herself  and  the  cause,  Isabella  exclaimed,  'I  undertake  the 
enterprise  for  my  own  crown  of  Castile,  and  will  pledge  my 
jewels  to  raise  the  necessary  funds.'"  Irving,  who  is  an 
extremely  romantic  writer,  exclaims:  " 
moment  in  the  life  of  Isabella ;  it  stampe 
as  the  patroness  of  the  discovery  of  the  J 
Angel  said  that  Jie  vas  ready  ti  Ivance 
he  evidently  knew  a  few  thin^  ^>i't* 
to  the  queen,  and  Boman  Call 


was  the  proudest 
'•  renown  for  evei 
vVorld."  But  St. 
ecessary  funds,  for 
.  not  been  confided 
.haps  Jesuit)  as  he 
was,  he  realized  that  knowledge  ^  better  than  faith,  at 
least  in  this  instance.  On  this  basis  of  knowledge  he  pledged 
the  funds. 

"  Armed  with  these  royal  commissions,"  writes  Arthur  Helps, 
who  also  describes  the  occurrences  l.  the  monastery  in  detail, 
"  Columbus  left  the  Court  for  Palos  ;  and  we  may  be  sure  that 
the  knot  of  friends  at  the  monastery  were  sufficiently  demon- 
strati  "?^e  in  their  delight  at  the  scheme  on  which  they  had  pinned 
their  faith  being  fairly  launched." 

Christopher  Columbus  discovered  America,  in  the  year  1492, 
in  the  tcay  described.  Then  history,  pliant,  ductile  history,  had 
a  new  oiiice  to  perform :  to  extol  Columbus  and  immortalize 
him  1  The  monkish  chroniclers  did  this  with  as  little  scruple  as 
they  had  consigned  the  true  discoverers  to  oblivion. 

Aaron  Goodrich,  who  has  made  a  very  close  study  of  the 
character  of  Columbus,  arrives  at  conclusions  in  re^'ard  to  him 
that  will  clearly  demonstrate  to  the  mind  of  any  candid  and 
unprejudiced  reader  the  reason  why  Barry,  the  Roman  Catholic, 
should  say  of  him :  "This  man  had  no  deftct  of  character,  or 
no  worldly  quality ;  we  have  weighty  reasons  for  considering 
him  a  saint."  But  Goodrich  gives  a  contrary  analysis :  "  By 
representing  himself  as  the  chosen  of  God,  the  champion  of  the 
Christian  religion,  carrying  the  light  of  the  Gospel  to  heathen 
nations,  by  performing  the  smallest  acts  with  affectation  of 
religious  ceremony,  by  inserting  Scriptural  and  religious  sentences 


OR,  Honour  to  whom  Honour  is  Due.  95 


the 

Jind 

[lie, 

or 


ling 


in  his  most  trivial  letters,  hy  recoiuiting  miracles  and  interviews 
with  God,  by  giving,  in  fact,  a  leligiuus  culouriiig  to  all  his  acts, 
he  became  the  protegS  of  the  Cliurch,  which  has  continued 
through  all  after  centuries  to  regard  him  as  one  of  her  niost 
zealous  votaries,  and  is  now  strenuously  urged  to  place  him 
among  her  saints."        ,';  .        -      <    i'   '  '     ''      '     *  •' 

After  citing  the  remark  of  Lord  Klingsborough — "Tlio 
writing  of  history,  as  far  as  regards  the  New  World,  was  by  the 
law  of  Spain  restricted  to  men  in  priestly  orders  " — Gootlrith 
performs  much-needed  service  by  placing  before  the  public,  as 
a  specimen  of  the  exacticms,  the  list  of  licences  that  were 
appended  to  a  small  work  on  Mexico,  by  Boturini : — 

"  1.  The  declaration  of  his  faith.  ,  '^ 

. :  "2.  The  licence  of  an  Inquisitor. 
:  "3.  The  licence  of  the  Judge  of  the  Supreme  Council  of  tl.o 
,,.,.     '       Indies.  . '  ••        •  '  -■-:    '  ■     ..'■■,'.  \\   ,■  ^   >-r: 

..  /'4.  The  licence  of  the  Jesuit  father.     :  :     ;'  ,i 

;,.  "6.  The  licence  of  the  Royal  Council  of  the  Indies.  '  f. 

"6.  The  approbation  of  the  qualiticator  of  the  Inquisition. 
;    "  7.  The  licence  of  the  Royal  Council  of  Custile. 

"  Beyond  all  this  the  person  must  be  of  sufficient  influence  to 
obtain  the  favourable  notice  of  the  bodies  thus  represented. 
Nor  was  this  the  end  of  the  difficulty ;  the  licence  of  any  one  of 
these  officials  could  be  revoked  at  pleasure ;  and,  when  repub- 
lished, the  work  had  to  be  re-examined.  The  penalty  attached 
to  the  possession  of  a  book  not  thus  licensed,"  was  death.  Such 
was  the  tyranny,"  he  adds,  "  which  weighed  upon  historical 
writers;  and  it  is  not  difficult  to  perceive  how  all  these  censors 
would  deal  partially  with  Columbus."  '  (  ' 

An  especial  adaptation  had  to  be  made  to  the  case ;  the  New 
World  was  a  dangerous  suhjict  altogether,  which  had  to  bo 
handled  with  extreme  caution ;  the  difficulty  was  not  only  to 
preserve  the  fame  of  Columbus  from  all  heretical  cavil,  but  to 
rigorously  exclude  from  the  pages  of  history  all  hint  that 


n 


'f  ^} 


fi;^' 


u^ 


9*5    TiiE  Icelandic  Discoverers  of  America  ; 


Columbus  might  have  had  predecessors  who  were  more  justly 
entitled  to  the  fame  he  reaped.       ^  •■■'■    '   .  ,•'  .'. 

"  To  ecclesiastical  tyranny  and  popular  prejudice,"  continues 
Goodrich,  '*  may  be  added  the  exaggerations  and  falsehoods  of 
the  chief  actor  of  the  scene ; "  Columbus'  visit  to  Iceland  is  the 
key  that  reveals  all  these  exaggerations  and  falsehoods,  and 
many  of  these  were  bom  of  the  diffi  ;ulty  of  keeping  his  own 
secret  He  quotes  Aristotle,  Ptolemy,  St.  Isadore,  Bede, 
Striibo,  Petrus  Comestor,  St.  Ambrose,  Scotus,  Pliny,  Nicolas  do 
Lira,  St.  Augustine,  Marinus,  and  the  Holy  Scriptures,  but  not 
once  the  "  Codex  Flatoiensis  "  the  manuscript  finished  as  late  as 
1395,  which  contained  full  information  about  the  new  land  he 
sought,  and  recent  information  at  that.  As  a  specimen  of  his 
policy,  I  quote  an  extract  from  one  of  his  letters:  "Much  more 
I  would  have  done,  if  my  vessels  had  been  in  as  good  condition 
as  by  rights  they  ought  to  have  been.  This  is  much,  and 
praised  be  the  eternal  God,  our  Lord,  who  gives  to  all  those 
who  walk  in  K  is  ways  victory  over  things  which  seem  impossi- 
ble ;  of  which  this  is  signally  one,  for  although  others  may  have 
spoken  or  written  concerning  these  countries,  it  was  all  mere 
conjecture,  as  no  one  could  say  that  he  had  seen  them — it 
amounting  only  to  this,  that  those  who  heard  listened  the  more^ 
and  regarded  the  matter  rather  as  a  fable  than  anything  else. 
'  Only  a  few  years  after  this  well-attested  (1)  discovery  of  the 
New  World,  Sweden's  period  of  greatness  began;  in  1527 
King  Gustaf  L  proclaimed  Lutheranism  the  State  religion  of 
Sweden  ;  his  son,  Carl  IX.,  defeated  the  attempt  of  the  Catholic 
reaction,  of  which  Spain  was  the  soul,  to  re-establish  Romanism 
in  Sweden  ;  his  grandson,  Gustaf  Adolf,  was  one  of  the  leading 
generals  in  the  "  Thirty  Years'  "War,"  which  effected  the  victory 
of  the  Reformation  in  Europe  j  in  1776,  the  American  cohmies, 
which  had  been  growing  apace  in  these  three  centuries,  declared 
independence  of  Great  Britain,  and — the  severest  stroke  in  the 
succost  on  of  hard  strokes  that  bad  befallen  the  Cl^urch  of  Rome--> 


OR,  Honour  to  whom  Honour  is  Due.     97 


18IU 

ory 
ies, 
red 
the 


established  a  purely  secular  government!  The  old  Koree 
spirit,  supposed  to  have  been  effectually  quenched  in  the  year 
1000,  had  broken  out  again,  proven  itself  indestructible.  It 
had  again  given  Sweden  goud  warriors,  gord  statesmen,  good 
kings  and  generals ;  the  country  doomed  to  iiedieeval  obscurity 
and  penance,  agh  ji  stepped  to  the  front  and  made  itself  felt  as 
a  power  in  Europe,  but,  worse  than  all  else,  it  made  of  the  new 
American  BepuUic  the  most  formidable  power  for  good  that 
the  powers  of  darkness,  incarnate  in  the  Church,  had  ever  liad 
to  contend  with,  and  this  occupied  an  immense  territory,  rich, 
fertile,  comprising  enormous  resources,  and  admirably  calculated 
to  promote  enlightenment  and  the  well-being  not  only  of  its  own 
inhabitants,  but  of  the  down-trodden,  oppressed,  priest-ridden, 
pining,  inhabitants  of  Europe !  No  nation,  since  the  Scandina- 
vian North  had  devoted  itself  to  glory,  had  ever  been  so  proud 
as  the  American  Republic,  so  boastful  of  its  liberty,  its  grandeur, 
its  advancement,  so  impatient  of  the  slightest  touch  upon  its 
freedom,  its  rights.  No  people  were  so  little  disposed  to  bow 
to  either  Church  or  throne,  indeed  they  made  a  national  procla- 
mation of  their  determination  not  to  bow  to  anything.  Norse 
defiance  flamed  up  again  in  the  person  of  free-bom  Americans. 
The  greatest  possible  progress  was  threatened  in  republicanism 
and  free  ideas !        ..  ;  ,  .,        ■  "  *       >   •    :;    ;:>•  ..i; 

"What  did  the  Church  of  Eome  do,  what  could  it  do  but 
claim  the  United  States  as  its  own,  on  the  score  of  the  disco\'cry 
of  America  by  Columbus  1  If  this  claim  could  be  presse<l,  if 
the  United  States  could  be  forced  or  cajoled  into  an  acknow- 
ledgment of  the  discovery  by  Columbus,  all  might  be  retrieved. 
But  the  Church  must  move  with  all  prudence,  the  design  must 
not  be  suspected  until  fairly  accomplished.  There  was  no 
reason  to  doubt  that  the  United  States  would  fall  into  the  trap. 

Barry  remarks  a  revival  of  interest  and  of  biographies  of 
Columbus  at  the  beginning  of  this  century,  and  names  Luigi 
Bo9§i,  li^ayarretQ,  W.  Irving,  and  Denis  as  oeing  instrumental  in 


9S    Thb  Tcelandic  Discoverers  of  America; 


t!>Il 


the  favourable  reaction.  He  boasts  of  his  own  book,  "The 
Gross  in  the  Two  Worlds,**  as  haying  "  come  to  reveal  for  the 
first  time  the  providential  mission  confided  to  Columbus,  and 
to  afiirm  loudly  the  saintliness  of  his  character."  Aii  ascending 
series  of  publications,  he  declares,  "  show  the  progressive  interest 
that  is  attached  to  the  memory  of  Columbus."  In  lamenting 
the  past  injustice  to  Columbus^  for  his  keen  perception  seems  to 
have  detected  something  resembling  this  even  in  Spain,  he  avers 
devoutly  that  "the  Roman  Pontificate  alone  preserved  the 
thought  of  the  apostolic  grandeur  of  Columbus;  successively 
three  Popes  had  honoured  with  their  confidence  this  herald  of 
the  Cross ;  the  Holy  See  never  failed  in  its  regard  for  him." 
We  can  well  believe  thai  I  "  But  in  our  days,"  he  cries  jubilantly, 
''there  is  manifested  a  movement  of  reparative  justice  and 
friendliness  for  the  fame  of  Columbus.  Pains  are  taken  to 
honour  him." 

The  plot  once  clearly  discerned,  these  pains  will  be  taken  in 
vain.  It  cannot  but  be  apparent  to  one  who  gives  the  subject 
a  moment's  serious  consideration,  that  the  Church  that  has  fought 
the  Scandinavians  for  ages  in  Europe,  is  not  likely  to  fraternize 
or  coalesce  with  American  institutions  that  are  the  natural  out* ' 
growth  of  the  Scandinavian  spirit.  There  is  a  new  conflict 
impending  in  the  United  States.  The  same  people  who  were 
compelled  to  abolish  the  physical  slavery  of  which  the  seeds 
were  sowed  by  Spain,  will  noy  have  to  abolish  the  spiritual 
slavery  which  Spain  and  Borne  with  combined  force  are  en->  ' 
deavouring  to  fasten  upon  it.  ^ 

In  finding  fault  with  the  four  biographers  of  Columbus, ' 
Spotorno,  Irving,  Navarrete,  and  Alex,  von  Humboldt,  who,  as 
he  declares,  "  denaturalize  his  person  and  his  providential  rSle," 
Barry  writes  this  pregnant  sentence :  "  The  biography  of 
Columbus  has  remained  in  the  hands  of  his  natural  enemies  .  . . 
whence  it  follows  that  the  view  taken  of  it  by  Protestantism  is 
the  only  one  by  which  people  have  judged  of  the  most  vasty 


OR,  Honour  to  whom  Honour  is  Due.     99 


and  evidently  the  most  superhuman  achievement  of  Catholic 
genius.** 

Yes,  he  is  right,  the  whole  plot  is  most  assuredly  the  most 
vast  and  the  most  superhuman  achievement  of  Catholic  genius ! 
"What  but  Catholic  genius^  the  genius  for  deceit,  for  trickery,  , 
for  secrecy,  for  wicked  and  diabolical  machinations,  could  have 
pursued  such  a  system  of  fraud  for  centuries  as  the  one  now 
being  exposed  4  What  but  Catholic  genius,  a  prolific  genius  for 
evil,  would  have  attempted  to  rob  the  Norsemen  of  their  fame, 
of  the  knowledge  of  their  great  discovery,  and  to  foist  a 
miserable  Italian  adventurer  and  upstart  upon  Americans  as  the 
true  candidate  for  these  posthumous  honours,  the  man,  or  saint, 
to  whom  they  are  to  do  homage,  and  through  this  homage  allow 
the  Church  of  Rome  to  slip  the  yoke  of  spiritual  subjection 
over  their  necks  1 

One  of  the  most  interesting  pages  in  history,  the  history  as 
yet  unwritten,  will  be  the  account  of  the  manner  in  which  the 
American  people,  the  descendants  of  the  Vikings,  treat  this 
attempt!  ^  >rv(_^..^.,iv:^^^. 

f . 


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100    The  Icelandic  Discoverers  of  America; 


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COLUMBUS' VISIT  TO  lOBLAKD. 

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11 


The  best  proof  that  Columbus  went  to  Iceland,  before  perfecting 
his  plans  for  the  discovery  of  the  land  the  other  side  of  the 
Western  ocean,  is  that  he  said  so  himself.  The  pregnant  passage 
is  quoted  by  Irving,  in  his  "  Life  of  Columbus  : "  "  While  the 
design  of  attempting  the  discovery  in  the  West  was  maturing 
in  the  mind  of  Columbus,  he  made  a  voyage  to  the  North  of 
Europe.  Of  this  we  have  no  other  memorial  thjm  the  following 
passage,  extracted  by  his  son  from  one  of  his  letters :  '  In  the 
year  1477,  in  February,  I  navigated  one  hundred  leagues  beyond 
Thule,  the  southern  part  of  which  is  seventy-three  degrees 
distant  from  the  equator,  and  not  sixty-three,  as  some  pretfind  ; 
neither  is  it  situated  within  the  line  which  includes  the  west  of 
Ptolemy,  but  is  much  more  westerly.  The  English,  principally 
those  of  Bristol,  go  with  their  merchandise  to  this  island,  which 
is  as  large  as  England.  When  I  was  there,  the  sea  was  not 
frozen,  and  the  tides  were  so  great  as  to  rise  and  fall  twenty-six 
fathom.'" 

This  statement,  according  to  Professor  R.  B.  Anderson,  is  itlso 
to  be  found  in  chapter  four  of  the  biography  which  the  son 
of  Christopher  Columbus  wrote  of  his  father,  and  which  was 
published  in  Venice  in  1571.  Its  title  is  **  Yita  dell' adiniraglia 
Christoforo  Columbo." 

Professor  Anderson's  book,  "America    not    discovered  by 


vv'Avl>M  '  .V!iVv^3Vjl'';U  h-'TCAr^l'M. 


Ok,  MONOUR  TO  WHOM  ttONOUR  IS  t)UE.      tOl 


Coiniiihus,"  aside  from  its  bolci  ne^^ation  of  the  proud  pontilical 
assertion  that  the  saint  in  question  did  discover  that  country, 
leads  attention  to  a  point  that  has  been  almost  entirely  over- 
looked, namely,  the  connection  between  the  true  and  the  alle/ed 
discovery ;  he  says  :  "  While  the  various  writers  here  alluded  to" 
(he  goes  over  the  ground  pretty  thoroughly)  "  freely  admit  the 
fact  that  the  Norsemen,  as  well  as  others,  discovered  and  ex- 
plored parts  of  America  long  before  Columbus,  they  are  unwil  ing 
to  believe  that  there  is  any  historical  connection  between  the 
discovery  of  the  Norsemen  and  that  of  Columbus ;  or,  in  other 
words,  that  Columbus  profited  in  any  way  by  the  Norseman's 
knowledge  of  America.     This  is  all  the  more  singular  since 
none  of  them  even  try  to  deny  the  statement  made  by  Fernando 
Golumbo,  his  son,  that  he  (Christopher  Columbus)  not  only 
spent  some  time  in  Iceland,  in  1477,  but  sailed  300   miles 
beyond,  which  must  have  brought  him  nearly  within  siglit  of 
Greenland.     We  are  informed  that  he  was  an  earnest  student, 
and  the  best  geographer  and  map-maker  of  his  day.     He  was  a 
dUigent  reader  of  Aristotle,  Seneca,  and  Strabo.     Why  not  also 
of  Adam  of  Bremen,  who,  in  his  volume  published  in  the  year 
1076,   gave  an    accurate    and  well-authenticated  accoimt  of 
Vinland  (New  England)  1 "    He  goes  on  to  say  that  he  believes 
that  "  Columbus  was  a  scholar  who  industriously  studied  all 
books  and  manuscripts  that  contained  any  information  about 
voyages  and  discoveries;  that  his  searching  mind  sought  out 
the  writings  of  Adam  of  Bremen,  that  well-known  historian 
who  in  the  most  unmistakable  and  emphatic  language  speaks  of 
the  Norse  discovery  of  Vinland;   that  the  information  thus 
gathered  induced  him  to  make  his  voyage  to  Iceland."    --•  *.    >    • 
Aaron  Goodrich,  on  the  other  hand,  does  not  believe  that 
Columbus  went  to  Iceland,  notwithstanding  Columbus  wrote 
about  his  visit  there  to  his  son  and  his  son  quoted  the  passage 
in  his  letter, — and  he  doubts  this  for  the  very  reason  that 
ab.oald  have  made  him  credit  it  implicitly,  namoly*  because. 


'I 


102    The  Icelandic  Discoverers  op  America; 


it' 


Columbus  has  so  very  little  to  sty  about  it.  Goodrich 
comments  :  "  He  does  not  give  any  reasons  for  such  a  voyage 
(to  Iceland)  nor  mention  the  ship  he  sailed  in,  or  the  port  he 
sailed  from;  he  gives  nothing,  in  fact,  but  the  most  vague 
assertions.  All  contemporary  writers,  State  papers,  &c.,  are 
silent  upon  the  subject^  when  less  important  matters  are  re- 
corded." It  is  astonishing  that  so  shrewd  a  writer  as  Good- 
rich, who  seems  to  have  fathomed  Columbus'  motives  in  all 
other  regards,  should  have  expected  him  to  give  his  reasons  for 
the  voyage,  mention  the  ship  he  sailed  in  and  the  port  he  sailed 
from,  when  he  was  going  on  a  secret  expedition,  probably  com- 
missioned by  the  Pope  himself,  for  the  purpose  of  stealing 
knowledge  that  would  put  the  Church  in  possession  of  a  vast 
new  territory  for  the  acquisition  of  gold,  slaves,  and  souls  i 
This  secrecy  is  prima-facie  evidence  that  he  went  to  Iceland. 
But  it  would  have  been  better  for  the  Church  of  Bome  if  his  son 
had  burned  this  letter  as  soon  as  he  had  read  it  1  On  so  slight  a 
thread,  on  this  little  indiscretion  of  his  in  keeping  the  letter 
and  mentioning  it,  rested  the  vindication  of  the  fame  of  the 
Norsemen  and  the  conviction  of  Columbus  of  a  base  fraud ! 

Barry,  however,  does  not  seem  to  doubt  that  Columbus  went 
to  Iceland.  He  writes  in  his  usual  ecstatic  way  :  "  We  see 
him  crossing  the  German  Ocean  and  advancing  to  the  Polar 
Seas.  In  February,  1474,  he  was  a  hundred  leagues  beyond 
Iceland,  and  verified  some  phenomena  interesting  to  hydro- 
graphy. From  the  sombre  horizons  of  the  North,  from  the 
Ultima  Thule  of  the  ancients  to  the  splendid  skies  of  the 
tropics  " — the  writer  does  not  hint  at  what  Columbus  verified 
in  Iceland  hmdes  phenomena— "with  his  powerful  faculty  of 
generalization,  he  united  together  in  his  memory  the  harmonies 
of  land  and  sea,  seeking  to  penetrate  beyond  the  poetry  of 
appearances  the  great  laws  of  the  glob'>."  This  is  not  very 
lucid,  but  it  is  suggestive.  There  is  nothing  so  good  to  hide 
a  little  hard  fact  as  a  lot  of  rhapsodical  vapour.     Far  from 


> 


OR,  Honour  to  whom  Honour  is  Due.  103 

seeking  to  penetrate  the  great  laws  of  the  globe  at  tliat  precise 
period,  the  Italian  mariner,  who,  failing  of  being  a  skilful  one, 
was  bent  on  being  a  lucky  one,  was  on  the  hunt  for  those 
particular  paragraphs,  in  some  old  manuscript  or  other,  that 
would  serve  him  as  a  chart  to  the  coveted  land  in  the  West. 
This  is  only  one  evidence  more  of  the  elaborate  disguise  that 
was  thrown  around  all  his  movements  while  at  Iceland. 

R.  H.  Major,  in  the  introduction  to  "  Columbus*  Letters," 
mentions  the  fact  of  his  having  gone  to  Iceland,  yet  adds  : 
"  But  upon  the  whole  of  this  portion  of  his  history  there  rests 
an  impenetrable  cloud  of  obscurity."  It  was  indeed  like  a 
secret  of  the  confessional,  divulged  only  to  the  holy  fathers 
themselves ! 

Arthur  Helps^  in  his  "  Life  of  Columbus,"  asserts  positively ; 
"  We  are  sure  that  he  traversed  a  large  part  of  the  known 
world,  that  he  visited  England,  that  he  made  his  way  to  Ice- 
land and  Friesland  (where  he  may  possibly  have  heard  vague 
tales  of  the  discoveries  by  the  Northmen  in  North  America), 
that  he  had  been  at  El  Mina,  on  the  coast  of  Guinea,  and  that 
he  had  seen  the  islands  of  the  Grecian  Archipelago."  And 
there  can  scarcely  be  anything  more  emphatic  than  the  follow- 
ing words  by  Toulmin  Smith:  "There  can  be  little  doubt  that  he 
(Columbus)  had  gained  the  chief  confirmation  of  his  idea  of 
the  existence  of  terra  Jirma  in  the  Western  ocean,  during  the 
visit  which  he  is  known  to  have  made,  before  his  Western 
voyage,  to  Iceland." 

It  was  on  the  coast  of  Guinea,  as  Goodrich  has  ascertained, 
that  Columbus  qualified  himself  in  a  branch  of  trade  that  he 
evidently  considered  indispensable  in  the  future  founder  of  a 
colony,  for  Goodrich  states  :  "  For  some  years,  it  is  unknown 
at  what  precise  period,  Columbus  was  engaged  in  the  Guinea 
slave-trade,  in  which  he  subsequently  showed  himself  such  an 
adept  with  regard  to  the  unfortunate  Indians  as  well  to  de- 
serve the  compliment  paid  him  by  Mr.   Helps,  who  calls  hia 


■i  i 


li 


104    The  Icelandic  Discoverers  of  America; 


procceilings  and  plans  worthy  of  a  practised  slave-dealer.** 
Professor  Anderson  states,  for  the  benefit  of  those  who  have 
not  read  Goodrich's  book,  "  History  of  the  Character  and 
Achievements  of  the  so-called  Christopher  Columbus,"  that 
'•  Aaron  Goodrich  pronounces  Columbus  a  fraud,  and  denounces 
him  as  mean,  selfish,  perfidious  and  cruel.  He  has  evidently 
made  a  very  careful  study  of  the  life  of  Columbus,  and  we 
have  looked  in  vain  for  a  satisfactory  refutation  of  his  state- 
ments." Still  less  can  the  following  statement,  by  the  same 
author,  be  refuted  :  "  Columbus  owes  most  of  his  fame  to  the 
Church,  which,  charmed  with  the  devotion  he  professed,  has 
chanted  his  praises,  and  crushed  any  historian  who  would  not 
join  in  them,  as  long  as  her  power  was  sufficient." 

The  next  thing  necessary  for  a  full  understanding  of  this 
momentous  visit  of  Columbus  to  Iceland  is  to  know  the  full 
extent  of  his  opportunities  there  and  the  use  he  made  of  them. 
Much  light  is  thrown  on  this  by  Laing  ;  in  his  "  Sea-kings  of 
Norway "  he  makes  substantially  the  same  statement  as  the 
one  quoted  in  the  first  chapter  of  this  book  ;  it  is  this  :  *'  It  is 
evident  that  the  main  fact  is  that  of  a  discovery  of  a  Western  land 
being  recorded  in  writing  between  1387  and  1395  ;  and  whether 
the  minor  circumstances,  such  as  the  personal  adventures  of  the 
discoverers,  or  the  exact  localities  in  America  which  they 
visited,  be  or  be  not  known,  cannot  aflfect  this  fact, — nor  the 
very  strong  side-fact  that  eighty  years  after  this  fact  was  re- 
corded in  writing,  in  no  obscure  manuscript,  but  in  one  of  the 
most  beautiful  works  of  penmanship  in  Europe,  Columbus 
came  to  Iceland,  from  Bristol,  in  1477,  on  purpose  to  gain 
nautical  information,  and  must  have  heard  of  the  written 
accounts  of  discoveries  recorded  in  it."  The  writer  also 
cites  the  paragraph  in  the  memoir  of  Columbus  by  his 
son.  Professor  Anderson  says,  very  pertinently,  that  "there 
were  undoubtedly  people  still  living  whose  grandfathers  had 
crossed  the  Atlantic,  and  it  would  be  altogether  unreasonable 


OR,  Honour  to  whom  Honour  is  Due.  105 


to  suppose  that  he  (Columbus),  who  was  constantly  studying 
and  talking  about  geography  and  navigation,  possibly  could 
visit  Iceland  and  not  hoar  anything  of  the  land  in  the  West." 
He  goes  rather  farther  than  other  authors,  but  still  does  not 
express  himself  as  severely  as  the  case  deserves,  when  he  saya  : 
"  The  fault  that  we  find  with  Columbus  is,  that  he  was  not 
honest  and  frank  enough  to  tell  where  and  how  he  liad 
obtained  his  previous  information  about  the  lands  which  he 
pretended  to  discover ;  that  he  sometimes  talked  of  himself  as 
chosen  of  Heaven  to  make  this  discovery,  and  that  he  made 
the  fruits  of  his  labours  subservient  to  the  dominion  of  Inquisi- 
tion." This  is  undeniably  a  very  grave  charge,  yet  it  far  from 
characterizes  the  religious  felony  of  which  Columbus  was 
guilty :  he  purloined  the  knowledge  of  a  discovery  of  trans- 
cendent value  made  by  men  of  a  pwgan  race,  but  recently  and 
very  reluctantly  converted  to  Christianity,  for  the  purpose  of 
securing  princely  honours  and  emolument  for  himself,  the  greatest 
conceivable  aggmndizement  for  the  Church,  such  an  oppor- 
tunity for  universal  dominion  as  could  never,  in  the  nature  of 
things,  occur  again  in  the  life  of  the  world  ;  and  last  and  most 
important  of  all,  for  the  purpose  of  making  the  New  World, 
through  its  entire  submission  to  the  Holy  See,  the  means  of 
crushing  out  all  tendencies  to  rebellion  against  the  Church  that 
might  possibly  manifest  themselves  again  in  Europe.  The  sway 
of  the  Church  of  Rome  could  not  be  complete  without  the 
acquisition  of  this  new  territory,  of  which  the  natives  were  to 
be  forced  into  allegiance  and  which  was  to  be  colonized  only  l»y 
those  firm  in  the  faith.  It  is  utterly  impossible  for  this  deed 
to  be  understood  in  all  its  enormity  by  those  who  shrink  from 
regarding  it  as  a  religious  crime,  the  most  heinous  one  of  tlie 
long  li«t  that  the  Church  of  Rome  has  committed,  and  which 
was  to  have  been  the  glorious  reward  for  all  the  others, 
emblazoning  the  favourite  maxim  of  this  hierarchy,  "  The  end 
garn-Hfi'S  the  iiieanny"  on  the  very  skies !    Christians  of  every 


hi*  '  ■ 


W 


io6    The  Icelandic  Discoverers  of  America; 


m 


sect,  Protestants  of  all  grades,  treat  Eoman  Catholicism  very 
tenderly,  for  they  cannot  strike  it  at  tmy  of  its  vulnerable 
points,  without  striking  that  which  is  almost  equally  vulner- 
able in  their  own  system  of  religion.  Romanism  creeps  in 
everywhere  under  the  cover  of  Protestantism  j  Protestantism, 
whatever  bears  the  name  of  Christianity,  is  its  best  shield 
and  defence — in  fact  its  sole  one.  It  is  only  by  regarding 
Cliristianity  as  one,  of  which  Komanism  is  the  full  expression, 
and  Protestantism  the  diluted,  the  component  parts  of  this 
being,  when  analyzed,  Roman  Catholicism  and  liberality^  the 
first  not  less  evil,  intrinsically,  through  the  mixture,  the 
latter  only  rendered  less  effective, — and  by  realizing  the 
atrocious  way  in  which  Christianity  was  introduced  in  every 
land,  and  in  every  colony — by  noting  its  deadly  effects  upon 
every  race  that  were  forced  to  succumb  to  it,  that  one  can 
understand  the  full  nature  of  the  crime  under  consideration. 
Now,  h'^wever,  the  issue  can  no  longer  be  evaded  1  >    ;■'?.' 

That  Columbus  had  abundant  opportunities,  in  Iceland,  to 
pursue  his  inquiries  is  shown  clearly  by  Beamish,  in  his 
"  Discovery  of  America  by  the  Northmen : "  "  Nor  should  it 
be  forgotten  that  Columbus  visited  Iceland  in  1477,  when, 
having  had  access  to  the  archives  of  the  island  and  ample 
opportunity  of  conversing  with  the  learned  there  through  the 
medium  of  the  Latin  language,  he  might  easily  have  obtained  a 
complete  knowledge  of  the  discoveries  of  tlie  Northmen — 
sufficient  at  least  to  confirm  his  belief  in  the  existence  of  a 
Western  continent.  How  much  the  discoveries  of  the  dis- 
tinguished Genoese  navigator  were  exceeded  by  those  of  the 
Northmen,  will  appear  from  the  following  narratives."  (Then 
follows  the  translation  of  the  voyages  so  often  referred  to,  the 
same  that  was  published  by  the  Prince  Society,  in  Boston.) 
■  "According  to  Irving's  larger  work,"  the  same  author  re- 
marks, "  this  visit  (to  Iceland)  took  place  in  February,  1477, 
when  Columbus  appears  to  have  observed  with  surprise  that  the 


OR,  Honour  to  whom  Honour  is  Due.     107 


sea  was  not  frozen.  The  learned  Icelander,  Finn  Magnusen, 
directs  attention  to  the  following  remarkable  coincidence  :  '  In 
the  year  1477,  Magnus  Eiolfson  was  Bishop  of  Skalbolt  in  Ice- 
land ;  since  1470  he  had  been  abbot  of  the  Monastery  of 
Helgafell,  the  place  where  the  oldest  documents  relating  to 
Greenland,  Yinland,  and  the  various  parts  of  America  discovered 
by  the  Northmen  had  been  written,  and  where  they  were 
doubtless  carefully  preserved,  as  it  was  from  this  very  district 
that  the  most  distinguished  voyagers  had  gone  forth.  These 
documents  must  have  been  well  known  to  Bishop  Magnus,  as 
were  their  general  contents  throughout  the  island,  and  it  is, 
therefore,  in  the  highest  degree  improbable  that  Columbus,  whose 
mind  had  been  filled  with  the  idea  of  exploring  a  "Western 
continent  since  the  year  1474,  should  have  omitted  to  seek  for 
and  receive  information  respecting  these  early  voyages.  He 
arrived  at  Hvalfjord,  or  Hvalfjardarejri,  on  the  south  coast  of 
Iceland,  at  a  time  when  that  harbour  was  most  frequented,  and 
it  is  well  known  that  Bishop  Magnus  visited  the  neighbouring 
churches  in  the  spring  or  summer." 

Laing  gives  still  further  information  on  this  point,  obtained 
from  the  same  source  and  one  other,  namely,  Captain  Zahrt- 
mann  on  the  voyage  of  Zeno,  and  Finn  Magnusen  on  **  The 
English  Trade  to  Iceland,"  second  volume  of  "  Nordisk  Tid- 
skrift,"  1833.  It  is  this :  "  Columbus  came  in  spring  to  the 
south  end  of  Iceland,  where  Whalefjord  was  the  usual  harbour, 
and  it  is  known  that  Bishop  Magnus,  exactly  in  the  spring  of 
that  year  (1477),  was  on  a  visitation  to  that  part  of  his  see,  and 
it  is  to  be  presumed  Columbus  must  have  met  and  conversed 
with  him." 

In  a  review  of  that  great  work  by  Professor  Rafn,  "  Antiqui- 
tates  AmericansB,"  which  appeared  in  the  Foreign  Quarterly 
Review^  ior  May,  1838,  it  is  asked  very  apily  :  "  But  what 
could  be  more  to  his  purpose  or  better  adapted  to  his  views 
than  the  fact  that  the  Northmen,  the  boldest  of  navigators, 


i'Ul 


F5f'r 


168    The  Icelandic  Discoverers  of  America; 


had  knowledge  of  a  land  in  the  West  which  they  supposed  to 
extend  far  southwards  till  it  met  Africa  ?  Or  would  not  the 
intelligent  Genoese  find  some  suggestion  in  the  following  more 
accurate  statement  of  an  Icelandic  geographer :  '  On  the  west 
of  the  great  tiea  of  Spain,  which  some  call  Ginnuugagap,  and 
leaning  somew><%t  towards  the  north,  the  first  land  whi(jh  occurs 
isthegood  VinlandV" 

If  we  turn  to  Swedish  authors,  we  find  the  same  belief  with 
them,  that  Columbus  paid  a  visit  to  Iceland  and  obtained  there 
all  the  information  requisite  to  enable  him  to  carry  otit  his  pre- 
sumptuous plan.  Holmberg's  words  are  conclusive :  "  With 
certainty  do  we  know  that  Columbus  toward  the  end  of  the 
fifteenth  century,  presumably  in  the  year  1477,  sojourned  at 
Iceland,  where  he  was  sent  by  Englishmen,  whose  industrial 
mind  had  already  fixed  its  attention  upon  Iceland's  rich  fisheries. 
Here  ho  without  doubt  met  the  descendants  of  those  who  had 
first  made  said  discovery,  got  knowledge  of  the  written  mgor 
thereof,  and  probably  also  obtained  fresh  intelligence  concerning 
the  great  land  in  the  West,  Vinland  det  goda,  as  history  is  able 
to  mention  an  American  voyage  only  one  hundred  and  thirty 
years  previous.  He  was,  however,  sufficiently  prudent  never  to 
reveal  this,  and  such  a  traij  perhaps  diminishes  his  greatness. 
The  edge  of  the  well-known  story  of  Columbus  is  through  this 
turned  against  himself,  and  one  cannot  well  avoid  seeing  a 
Nemesis  in  the  fact  that  the  New  World  did  not  obtain  his 
name,  but  that  of  another  who  sailed  in  his  wake.'* 

And  in  Spain,  when  it  became  a  matter  of  obtaining  royal 
sanction  to  his  enterprise,  the  funds  to  carry  it  through,  what 
evidence  so  incontrovertible  of  the  success  that  had  attended  his 
inquiries  in  Iceland  as  his  supreme  confidence — in  himself  1 — 
no,  in  the  certainty  he  had  obtained  up  there  in  the  North, 
from  records  that  did  not  lie,  like  the  Southern  ones,  from  a 
people  who  did  not  lie,  and  who  treasured  the  great  deeds  of 
their  illustrious  ancestors, — ts  his  grand  pretensions,  and,  foi 


OR,  ttONOUH  TO  WHOM  HONOUU  IS  DuE.      100^ 

that  mntter,  his  patience  and  fortitude,  which  have  been  so 
Uiuch  lauded,  in  holding  out  during  so  long  a  struggle  and  wait- 
ing 1  This  certainty,  based  on  reliable  Icelandic  records,  was 
more  stimulating  than  scientific  knowledge,  such  scientific  know- 
1<  dge  as  he  could  command,  more  sustaining  than  faith,  mora 
delicious  than  even  bia  own  vanity !  He  was  not  too  proud, 
this  man,  to  enjoy  a  stolen  inheritance. 

As  is  well  known,  his  plan  stranded,  in  the  first  instance,  on 
account  of  his  preposterously  high  demands.  Irving,  observing 
the  fact,  but  misconstruing  the  cause,  says :  "  So  fully  imbued 
was  Columbus  with  the  grandeur  of  his  enterprise,  that  he  would 
listen  to  none  but  princely  conditions."  Not  with  "  the  gran- 
deur of  his  enterprise,"  but  with  the  money  value  of  his  stolen 
knowledge,  the  three-fold  advantage  of  it  to  the  Church,  the 
throne  of  Spain  and  himself,  was  he  imbued  1  "  The  courtiers 
who  treated  with  him,"  continued  Irving, "  were  indignant  at  such 
a  demand.  Their  pride  was  shocked  to  see  one  whom  they  had 
considered  as  a  needy  adventurer,  aspiring  to  rank  and  dignities 
superior  to  their  own." 

Needy  adventurer  he  indeed  was !  But  the  consciousness 
that  he  had  a  genuine  commodity  for  which  he  was  sure  to  find 
a  customer  in  the  long  run,  gave  him  the  hardihood  to  make 
large  demands.  Naturally  insolent,  this  secret  certainty  inflated 
his  insolence  to  the  extreme  of  audacity.  It  was  not  reckless 
audacity,  however,  for  he  was  sure  of  his  ground,  and  could  not 
very  well  presume  too  much. 

The  reader  will  now  be  interested  to  know  what  share  of  the 
spoils  fell  to  Columbus — these  guaranteed  beforehand— Qs\h&xe' 
suit  of  the  knowledge  he  stole  at  Iceland,  and  which  rendered 
this  trip  the  most  successful  voynge  on  record. 

The  following  is  quoted  from  Arthur  Helps*  "Life  of 
Columbus : " — 

"  The  favours  which  Christopher  Columbus  has  asked  from 
the  King  and  Queen  of  Spain  in  recompense  of  the  discoveries 


M 


;  \ 


Sit» 


."  ''■ 


'»3^!^^ 


tfH 


.:'■  1.  ■ 


no    The  Icklandic  Discoverers  of  America; 


which  he  has  made  in  tho  ocean  seas,  and  as  recompense  for  the 
voyage  which  he  is  ahout  to  undertake,  are  the  'oUowiiig  : — 

"1.  He  wishes  to  be  made  admiral  of  <he  8< .  j  and  countries 
which  he  is  about  to  discover.  He  desires  to  hold  this  dignity 
during  his  life,  and  that  it  should  descend  to  his  heirs. 

"  This  request  is  granted  hy  the  Kivg  and  Queen. 

"2.  Christopher  Columbus  wishes  to  be  made  viceroy  of  all 
the  continents  and  islands. 

"  Granted  by  the  King  and  Queen. 

"  3.  He  wishes  to  have  a  share,  amounting  to  a  tenth  part,  of 
the  profits  of  all  merchandise,  be  it  pearls,  jewels,  or  any  other 
things,  that  may  be  found,  gained,  bought,  or  exported  from  the 
countries  which  he  is  to  discover. 

"  Granted  by  the  King  and  Queen.  '*" '  -'"  • 

"  4.  He  wishes,  in  his  quality  of  admiral,  to  be  made  sole  judge 
of  all  mercantile  matters  that  may  be  the  occasion  of  dispute  in 
the  countries  which  he  is  to  discover. 

**  Granted  by  the  King  and  Queen  on  the  condition  that  this 
jurisdiction  should  belong  to  the  office  of  admiral  as  held  by  Don 
Enriques  and  other  admirals. 

**  5.  Christopher  Columbus  wishes  to  have  the  right  to  contri- 
bute the  eighth  part  of  the  expenses  of  all  ships  which  traffic 
with  the  new  countries,  and  in  return  to  earn  the  eighth  part  of 

ihe^o^,"'''"'  ''-'''  •'■'  ^'^■-^■■-••'■;'^'-"' 

"  Granted  by  the  King  and  Queen.      "'    " "  *  •  ';     ' 

"  Santa  F6,  in  the  Vega  of  Granada,      '       '         •, .; 
-■    •     -  "  AprU  17th,  1492."        *"  * 

What  share  the  Pope  gave  the  King  and  Queen  we  already 
know  I  . 


11 


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WAi-ii f^'-.'^'-d*  .'ii'    *'-'  ■'• 


i::  i:: 


.'v  , 

•  ij  _•>,■     "■     :   •->--V:-.t    vxi  i 


6R,  Honour  to  whom  Monour  is  Duk.    itt 


3' I 

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VJt 


CHAPTER  VIL 


TBI  SCANDINAVIAN   NORTH   AND  SPAIN   CONTRASTED. 

The  signal  national  act  of  Spain,  whicli  has  given  it  a  ghastly  pre- 
eminence— this  act  extended  into  a  unifonn  lino  of  conduct  for 
several  centuries— was  that  of  crushing  out  all  the  civilization  with- 
in its  borders,  or  in  lands  adjacent  to  it.  That  which  distinguishes 
ancient  Scandinavia  is  its  persistent  resistance  to  the  power  that 
enabled  Spain  to  do  the  European  race  this  almost  irreparable 
injury,  the  national  traits  of  the  Northern  people  alone  pre- 
venting the  injury  from  becoming  universal  destruction.  To  be 
sure;  Llorente  and  others  assert  that  Spain  resisted  the  intro- 
duction of  the  Inquisition,  "  It  is  an  incontestable  fact,"  he  says, 
"  in  the  history  of  the  Spanish  Inquisition,  that  it  was  intro- 
d'laed  entirely  against  the  consent  of  the  provinces,  and  only  by 
the  influence  of  the  Dominican  monks  ;"  yet  the  resistance  was 
but  feeble,  the  ruling  traits  of  the  Spanish  people,  rightly 
defined  by  Buckle  as  loyalty  and  superstition,  operating  more 
decisively  to  further  its  introduction  than  even  the  zeal  of  the 
Dominicans.  "These,  then,  were  the  two  great  elements  of 
which  the  Spanish  cha.  acter  was  compoundid.  Loyalty  and 
superstition ;  reverence  for  their  kings  and  reverence  Ibr  their 
clergy  were  the  leading  principles  which  influenced  the  Spanish 
mind,  and  governed  the  march  of  Spanish  history,"  states  Buckle 
succinctly.  The  popes  and  bishops  of  the  fourth  century  had 
profited  of  the  circumstance  of  the  emperors  having  embraced 
Christianity,  and  this  gave  the  Church  the  reins  of  power,  while 


11?/  The  Icelandic  Discoverers  of  America  j 


B: 


I': 


the  predomitiant  traits  of  the  Spaniards  rendered  them  sab- 
missive  tools  for  any  infamy  Church  and  Throne  united  might 
devise.  This  nation  were  destitute  of  that  instinct  which  was 
the  strongest  in  the  Norsemen,  the  instinct  of  freedom. 

The  motives  for  establishing  the  Inquisition  must  of  necessity 
have  actuated  the  Spaniards  at  large  as  well  as  the  heads  of  the 
Church  and  the  reigning  sovereigns,  Ferdinand  and  Isabella, 
else  tne  people,  weak  as  they  were,  could  have  frustrated  the 
attempt  of  these  to  establish  such  a  system  of  terrorism  ;  but 
hatred  of  the  Jews,  a  consuming  envy  of  their  superior  pros- 
perity, as  well  as  their  learning  and  skill,  prevailed  everywhere, 
and  the  ecclesiastical  and  imperial  proposition  to  persecute  this 
race  in  a  body,  met  with  a  hearty  response.  Llorente  declares  this 
with  absolute  authority  :  "  The  Christians  who  could  not  rival 
them  in  industry,  had  almost  all  become  their  debtors,  and  envy 
Boon  mado  them  the  enemies  of  their  creditors."  The  Spanish 
Moors  were  still  more  obnoxious  to  them.  How  could  a  race 
who  were  Christians  in  the  full  sense  of  the  word,  steeped  in  t!je 
ignorance  and  superstition  that  this  implies,  i-oierate  the  proxi- 
mity of  apeople  whose  "culture  and  prosperity  rivalled  the  Golden 
Age  of  the  Grecian  Republics  "  1  This  glorious  height  had  been 
reached,  affirms  Felix  Oswald,  tv:  enturies  after  the  conversion 
of  Mecca,  "and,  six  hundred  years  later,  the  Moors  of  Spain  were 
still  the  teachers  of  Europe  in  science  and  arts,  as  well  as  in 
industry  and  in  agriculture."  True  Christians  are  manifestly 
of  the  same  type  everywhere,  and  the  Spanish  Christians  could 
not  have  diflfered  essentially  from  the  class  in  Greece  and  Rome 
upon  which  Celsus  visits  such  severe  reprobation.  "  You  shall 
see  weavers,  tailors,  fullers,  and  the  most  illiterate  and  rustic 
fellows,  who  dare  not  speak  a  word  before  wise  men,  when  they 
can  get  a  company  of  children  and  silly  women  together,  set  up 
to  teach  strange  paradoxes  among  them.  .  .  .  This  is  one  of  their 
rules — Let  no  man  that  is  learned,  wise,  or  prudent  come  anicmg 
us  J  but  if  any  be  unlearned,  or  a  child,  or  ao  idiot,  let  hipi 


OR,  Honour  to  wttom  Honour  is  Due.     113 


were 
as  in 

ifestly 
could 

I  Rome 
shall 

[rustic 

they 

set  up 

their 

It  him 


freely  come.     So  they  openly  declare  that  none  but  fools  and 
sots,  and  such  as  want  sense,  slaves,  women  end  children,  are 
fit  disciples  for  the  God  they  worship."     St.  Mark  also,  in  the 
second  chapter,  sixteenth  verse,  says  that  Jesus  went  surrounded 
by  men  and  women  of  ill-repute,  and  that  the  Pharisees  and  the 
learned  were  astonished  that  He  ate  and  drank  in  such  company. 
In  a  few  terse  words  Felix  Oswald  draws  the  contrast  between 
the  enlightened  and  unenlightened  in  Spain :    "  At  the  same 
time  when  Moorish  Si)ain  rivalled  the  god-gardens  of  ancient 
Italy,  and  every  Moorish  town  had  its  schools  of  poetry  and 
philosophy,  Christian  Spain  was  cursed  with  a  chronic  plague  of 
mental  and  physical  famines."    Prescott  also  affirms  that  "  the 
Spanish  Moors  in  the  Peninsula  re:iched  a  higher  degree  of 
civilization  than  in  any  other  part  of  the  world,"  and,  further- 
more,  that   "  this  period   of  brilliant  illumination  with   the 
Saracens  corresponds  precisely  with  that  of  the  deepest  barbarism 
of  Europe ;  when  a  library  of  three  or  four  hundred  volumes 
was  a  magnificent  endowment  for  the  richest  monastery.** 
'■    It  was  the  same  with  the  Albigenses,  a  refined,  enlightened, 
free  minded  people,  opposed  to  the  doctrines  of  Rome ;  they 
excited  the  some  feelings  of  hatred,  envy  and  malignity  in  the 
Spaniards,  and.  the  command  to  exterminate  all  three  of  these 
races,  the  Moors,  Jews,  and  Albigenses,  was  more  than  welcome. 
This  ready  acceptance  of  a  fiendish  policy  in  itself  proves  Sj)uin 
to  have  been  brutally  debased.     In  religious  parlance  this  nai  ion 
abhorred  heresy  ;  in  the  language  of  truth,  it  abhorred  civiliza- 
tion.    Nevertheless,  it  must  be  admitted  candidly,  that  it  is  the 
only  nation  that  has  ever  pursued  a  thoroughly  consistent  policy, 
for  Chri^^tiaiiity  and  civilization  are  utterly  incompatible  and 
e-:mot  exist  on  the  same  soil.     If  salvation  has  any  meaning,  if 
faith  is  ncLJPsary  for  salvation,  if  heresy  is  a  crime,  entailing 
the  most  frightful  consequences,  here  and  hereafter,  almost  any 
means  are  justifiable  to  prevent  that  crime,  and  no  means  less 
rigorous  than  the  Jlnt^uisition  could  have  checked  all  the  natural 


.114    The  Icelandic  Discoverers  of  America; 


instincts  of  the  human  heart  and  mind,  the  impulse,  craving, 
determination,  inseparable  from  human  nature,  for  knowledge, 
freedom,  happiness,  progress,  a  natural  and  unrestrained  life.  If 
Christianity  is  better  than  all  this,  according  to  its  own  dogmatic 
assertion,  which  Spain  implicitly  believed,  it  was  right  to  impose 
it  there,  through  any  menns  at  command,  which  Spain  did,  and 
it  would  also  be  right  to  impose  it,  at  this  present  day,  on  all 
the  nations  of  the  earth,  and  through  the  same  means,  the  only 
effectual  means,  the  Inquisition.  Christianity,  in  short,  pro- 
nounces human  nature  wrongj  all  its  attribute  s  wrong,  and  sets 
about  a  reconstr  iction  so  violent,  so  contrary  to  the  mental, 
moral,  and  physical  conformation  of  human  beings,  that  nothing 
less  than  the  extinction  of  the  species  will  eflect  it.  The  Spanish 
Inquisition  barely  failed  of  this  result  within  its  own  jurisdic- 
tion. Prescott  sums  up  Lloreiite's  figures  thus:  "  Llprente 
computes  that  during  the  eighteen  years  of  Torquemada's 
ministry,  there  were  no  less  than  10,220  burnt,  6860  con- 
demned and  burnt  in  effigy  as  absent  or  dead,  and  97,321 
reconciled  by  various  other  penances ;  affording  an  average  of 
more  than  6000  convicted  persons  annually."  But  in  his 
preface,  this  brave  and  outspoken  man,  who  with  almost  super- 
human courage  dared  to  expose  the  full  iniquity  of  the  Inquisi- 
tion, describes  the  evil  it  wrought :  "  I  have  also  shown  that 
these  ministi^rs  of  persecution  have  been  the  chief  causes  of  the 
decline  of  literatu  i,  and  almost  the  annihilators  of  nearly  all 
that  could  enlighten  the  people,  by  their  ignorance,  their  blind 
submission  to  the  monks  who  were  qualifiers,  and  by  persecuting 
the  mngistrates  and  the  learned  who  were  anxious  to  disseminate 
information.  These  monks  were  despicable  scholastic  theologians, 
too  ignorant  and  prejudiced  to  be  able  to  ascertain  the  truth 
betv\  een  the  doctrines  of  Luther  and  those  of  Roman  Catholicism, 
and  so  condemned  as  Lutheran,  propositions  incontestably  true. 
The  horrid  conduct  of  this  holy  nffire  woakeued  the  power  and 
diminished  the  populatio..  of  Spain  by  arresting  the  progreas  of 


OR,  Honour  to  whom  Honour  is  Due.     115 


arts,  science."',  industry,  and  commerce,  and  by  compelling  multi- 
tudes of  families  to  abandon  the  kingdom,  by  instigating  the 
expulsion  of  the  Jews  and  the  Moors,  and  by  immolating 
on  its  flaming  shambles  more  than  three  hundred  thousand 
victims  /  /  "  ; .     ' 

Concerning  this  invaluable  work,  which  will  yet,  I  trust  not 
in  the  far  future,  serve  the  purpose  of  doing  away  witii  Chris- 
tianity as  the  prime  cause,  not  only  of  this  particular  evil,  but 
of  all  evil,  Prescott  writes :  "  Llorente's  work  well  deserves  to 
be  studied  as  the  record  of  the  most  humiliating  triumph  which 
fanaticism  has  ever  been  able  to  obtain  over  human  reason,  and 
that  too  during  the  most  civilized  periods  and  in  the  most  civi- 
lized portion  of  the  world."  Llorente  gives  his  own  reasons  for 
undertaking  a  work  fraught  with  such  difficulty  and  danger. 
"A  firm  conviction,  from  knowing  the  deep  objects  of  this 
tribunal,  that  it  was  vicious  in  principle,  in  its  constitution,  and 
in  its  laws,  notwithstanding  all  that  has  been  said  in  its  support, 
induced  me  to  avail  myself  of  the  advantage  my  situation 
afforded  me,  and  to  collect  every  document  I  could  procure 
relative  to  its  history."  He  was  secretary  of  the  Inquisition  at 
Madrid  durmg  the  years  1789,  1790,  and  1791. 

The  purpose  was  thus  to  exterminate  heresy  and  heretics. 
Heresy,  as  we  have  seen,  is  a  very  comprehensive  word,  and  in 
the  eflfort  to  exterminate  that,  Spain  was  in  reality  exterminating 
all  that  was  of  value  to  the  human  race.  In  corroboration  of 
this  I  quote  several  authors,  for  the  testimony  must  be  so 
abundant  as  to  leave  no  doubt  on  this  point.  "  It  is  remarkable 
that  a  scheme  so  monstrous  as  that  of  the  Inquisition,  presenting 
tlie  most  etfectual  barrier,  probably,  that  was  ever  opposed  to 
tlie  progress  of  knowledj^e,  should  have  been  revived  at  the 
close  of  the  fifteenth  century,  when  tlie  light  of  civilization  was 
rapidly  advancing  over  every  part  of  Europe,"  writes  Prescott, 
also  remarking :  "  It  is  painful,  after  having  dwelt  so  long  on 
the  important  benefits  resulting  to  Castile  from  the  compreheu- 

X  2 


ii6    The  Icelandic  Discoverers  of  America; 


Ip 


m 


give  policy  of  Isabella,'  to  be  compelled  to  turn  to  the  darkez 
side  of  the  picture,  and  to  exhibit  her  as  accommodatiug  he^ 
Bolf  to  the  illiberal  spirit  of  the  age  in  which  she  lived,  so  far 
as  to  sanction  one  of  the  grossest  abuses  that  ever  disgraced 
humanity."  Buckle's  verdict  is  this :  "  In  such  a  state  of  society, 
anything  approaching  to  a  secular  or  scientific  spirit  was,  of 
course,  impossible.  Every  one  believed;  no  one  inquired. 
Among  the  better  classes,  all  were  engaged  in  war  or  theology, 
and  most  were  occupied  with  both.  Those  who  made  literature 
a  profession,  ministered,  as  professional  men  too  often  do,  to  the 
prevailing  prejudice.  .  .  .  The  quantity  of  Spanish  works  to 
prove  the  necessity  of  religious  persecution  is  incalculable ;  and 
this  took  place  in  a  country  where  not  one  man  in  a  thousand 
doubted  the  propriety  of  burning  heretics. .  .  .  The  greatest  men, 
with  hardly  an  exception,  became  ecclesiastics,  and  all  temporal 
considerations,  all  views  of  earthly  policy,  were  despised  and 
set  at  naught.  No  one  inquired  ;  no  one  doubted ;  no  one  pre- 
sumed to  ask  if  all  this  was  right.  The  minds  of  men  succumbed 
and  were  prostrate.  While  every  other  country  was  advancing, 
Spain  alone  was  receding.  Every  other  country  was  making  some 
addition  to  knowledge,  creating  some  art,  or  enlarging  some 
science,  Spain,  numbed  into  a  deathlike  torpor,  spell-bound  and 
entranced  by  the  accursed  superstition  which  preyed  on  her 
strength,  presented  to  Europe  a  solitary  instance  of  constant 
decay."  There  were  other  practical  results  to  which  he  also 
draws  attention :  "  The  Spanish  Christians  considered  agricul- 
ture beneath  their  dignity.  In  their  judgment  war  and  religion 
were  the  only  two  avocations  worthy  of  being  followed.  Some 
of  the  richest  parts  of  Valencia  and  Granada  were  so  neglected 
that  means  were  wanting  to  feed  even  the  scanty  population 
remaining  there.  Whole  districts  were  deserted,  and  down  to 
the  present  day  have  never  been  repeopled.     All  over  Spain 


>  "History  of  the  Reign  of  Ferdinand  and  Isabella,"  W.  H.  Frescott, 


ted 
ion 
to 
Dain 


'  '8r, Honour '1*6  HViiok  flrbNOuk'i^  Due.     117 

the  same  destitution  prevailed.  That  once  rich  and  prosper:  us 
country  was  covered  with  a  rabble  of  monks  and  clergy,  v/hcrse 
insatiate  rapacity  absorbed  the  little  wealth  yet  to  be  found. 
The  fields  were  left  uncultivated ;  vast  multitudes  died  from 
want  and  exposure ;  entire  villages  were  deserted." 

W.  H.  Lecky,  in  his  "  History  of  Eationalism,"  describes 
another  phase  of  the  evil :  "  The  persecutor  can  never  be  certain 
that  he  is  not  persecuting  truth  rather  than  error,  but  he  may  ' 
be  quite  certain  that  he  is  suppressing  the  spirit  of  truth.  And 
indeed,  it  is  no  exaggeration  to  say  that  the  doctrines  I  have 
reviewed  represent  the  most  skilful  and  at  the  same  time  most 
successful  conspiracy  against  that  spirit  that  has  ever  existed 
among  mankind.  Until  the  seventeenth  century,  every  mental 
disposition  which  philosophy  pronounces  to  be  essential  to 
a  legitimate  research  was  almost  uniformly  branded  as  a  sin ; 
and  a  large  proportion  of  the  most  deadly  intellectual  vices  were 
deliberately  inculcated  as  virtues.  ...  In  a  word,  there  is 
scarcely  a  disposition  that  marks  the  love  of  abstract  truth, 
and  scarcely  a  rule  which  reason  teaches  as  essential  for  its 
attainment,  that  theologians  did  not  for  centuries  stigmatize  as 
oflfensive  to  the  Almighty." 

Felix  Oswald  groups  the  evils  thus:  "Hence,  inquisitions 
and  crusades,  thirty  years'  wars,  heretic-hunts,  massacres  of 
St.  Bartholomew,  expulsions  of  the  Moors,  and  exterminations  of 
the  Albigenses."  He  asks  :  "  Has  the  happiness  of  the  human 
race  been  secured,  or  in  any  degree  promoted,  by  the  dogmas  of 
the  Christian  religion  V  And  then  proceeds  to  say  the  words 
which  the  continued  presence  of  Roman  Catholicism,  or  original 
Christianity,  in  the  midst  of  civilized  modern  communities, 
renders  so  imperatively  necessary:  "Cowardice  and  stupidity 
have  too  long  connived  at  the  crime  of  abetting  the  dissemina- 
tion of  that  earth-blighting  superstitiim,  and  it  is  time  to  say 
the  truth  in  plain  terms.  The  demonstrable  truth  then  is  that,  if 
(41  the  countries  of  Europe  that  were  destined  to  pass  undei 


J'"!, 


!'       '• 

•  ■            i 

iiiii' 

11 


m 


A.\i 


ii8    The  Icelandic  Discoverers  of  America; 


the  yoke  of  the  Cross  had,  instead,  for  a  thousand  years  been 
covered  by  the  ashes  of  the  fire-storm  that  buried  the  cities  of 
Pompeii  and  Herculaneum,  the  world  would  to-day  be  benefited 
by  the  result.  Our  earth  would  be  more  fertile  and  prosperous, 
our  fellow-men  would  be  freer,  wiser,  and  happier.  The  waste 
of  the  volcanic  cinders  would  have  proved  less  irreclaimable  than 
the  desert  of  pessimism.  The  survivors  of  the  catastrophe 
would  have  saved  their  children  from  the  alternative  of  death 
or  moral  slavery  that  awaited  the  next  forty  generations  of 
their  descendants.  The  nations  of  the  Caucasian  race  would 
have  been  spared  the  systematic  extirpation  of  their  wisest 
and  bravest  men.  The  Saracens,  whose  Western  empire  was 
destroyed  by  the  insane  fanaticism  of  the  Christian  priests, 
would  have  cultivated  the  garden  of  civilization  in  a  more 
grateful  soil."  <f.-  •,  .■>  ji,  ■[■a 

Llorente  states  as  a  fact  that  "  the  war  against  the  Albigenses 
was  the  first  cause  of  the  establishment  of  the  Inquisition,  and 
the  pretended  necessity  of  punishing  the  apostacy  of  the  newly- 
converted  Spanish  Jews  was  the  reason  for  introducing  it  in  a 
reformed  state."  After  a  very  thorough  dissection  of  all  the 
motives  and  objects,  he  says:  "  It  is  to  these  projects  " — having 
proved  most  of  them  to  be  mercenary — "  concealed  under  the 
appearance  of  zeal  for  religion,  that  the  Inquisition  of  Spain 
owes  its  origin.**  Prescott  also  says  that  "some  writers  are 
inclined  to  show  the  Spanish  Inquisition,  in  its  origin,  as  little 
else  than  a  political  engine,"  and  throws  further  light  on  the 
motives  of  the  Pope  that  instigated  it:  "  Sixtus  IV.,  who  at 
that  time  filled  the  pontifical  chair,  easily  discerning  the  sources 
of  wealth  and  influence  which  this  measure  opened  to  the  Court 
of  Eome,  readily  complied  with  the  petition  of  the  sovereigns, 
and  expedited  a  bull  bearing  date  November  Ist,  1478,  autho- 
rizing them  to  appoint  two  or  three  ecclesiastics  inquisitors 
for  the  detection  and  suppression  of  heresy  throughout  their 
dominions."    But  it  is  reserved  for  Llorente  to  state  this  with 


ca; 

— — ^» 

8  been 

ities  of 

snefited 

iperous, 

e  waste 

}le  than 

istrophe 

f  death 

ions  of 

i  would 

■  wisest 

lire  was 
priests, 
a  more 

ibigenses 
iion,  and 
3  newly- 
it  in  a 
all  the 
—having 
ider  the 
)f  Spain 
iters  are 
as  little 
t  on  the 
who  at 
sources 
le  Court 
jrereigns, 
I,  autho- 
][uisitor3 
it  their 
with 


OR,  Honour  to  whom  Honour  is  Due.  119 

full  authoritjr  and  reveal  the  ferocious  brigandage  of  the  Church 
officials:  "Facts  prove  beyond  a  doubt,"  he  says,  "  that  the 
extirpation  of  Judaism  was  not  the  real  cause,  but  the  mere 
pretext,  for  the  establishment  of  the  Inquisition  by  Ferdinand  V. 
The  true  motive  was  to  carry  on  a  vigorous  system  of  confis- 
cation against  the  Jews,  and  so  bring  their  riches  into  the  hands 
of  the  Government.  Sixtus  IV.  sanctioned  the  measure  to 
gain  the  point  dearest  to  the  Court  of  Rome,  an  extent  of 
domination."  In  revealing  the  intricate  mechanism  of  the 
Inquisition,  its  invisible  network,  its  secrecy,  its  diabolical 
craft  and  artifice,  he  shows  how  impossible  it  was  for  a  victim 
to  escape  from  its  toils,  except  by  a  deeper  cunning  than  the 
inquisitors  themselves  were  masters  of,  for  "  the  Inquisition 
employed  every  means  and  neglected  nothing  in  the  trials  of  the 
prisoners  to  make  them  appear  guilty  of  heresy,  and  all  this 
was  done  with  an  appearance  of  charity  and  compassion,  and 
in  the  name  of  Jesus  Christ."  Prescott,  too,  remarks:  "The 
sword  of  justice  was  observed,  in  particular,  to  strike  at  the 
wealthy,  the  least  pardonable  offenders  in  time  of  proscription." 

This  strips  away  the  last  disguise ;  whatever  religious  zeal, 
bigotry,  or  fanaticism  may  have  fired  the  uninitiated,  the  heads 
of  the  Church  at  Rome  were  actuated  by  money-greed  and  love 
of  dominion  ;  this  also  removes  the  last  excuse  of  those  religious 
persons  everywhere,  who  are  always  ready  to  extenuate  the 
crimes  of  the  Church  and  to  find  justification  for  all  forms  of 
intolerance.  The  Inquisition  was  highway  robbery  and  murder 
on  a  stupendous  scale.  If  missionary  work  of  all  kinds,  con- 
version, and  proselyting  is  less  than  that  in  our  own  day,  it  is 
only  because  the  moment  is  not  propitious  for  the  full  operation 
of  the  system,  the  Church  not  being  in  a  position  to  employ  all 
its  resources.  No  other  nation  than  Spain  has  ever  allowed  it 
to  exercise  its  full  prerogative. 

This  privilege  extended  over  a  considerable  length  of  time,  as 
Llorente  shows  :  "  Charles  V.  protected  it  (the  Inquisition)  from 


ft* 


If 


,j 


120    The  Icelandic  Discoverers  of  America; 


1^  4 


motives  of  policy,  being  convinced  it  was  the  only  means  of 

preventing  the  heresy  of  Luther  from  penetrating  into  Spain. 

Philip  II.  was  actuated  by  superstition  and  tyranny  to  uphold 

'it;  and  even  extended  its  jurisdiction  1o  the  excise,  and  made 

"the  exporters  of  horses  into  France  liable  to  seizure  by  the 

'  oflficers    of    the    tribunal,   as    persons    suspected    of    heresy. 

'  Philip  III.,  Philip  IV.,  and  Charles  II.  pursued  the    same 

course,  stimulated  by  similar  fanaticism  and  imbecility,  when 

the  reunion  of  Portugal  to  Spain  led  to  the  discovery  of  many 

*  Jews.  Philip  V.  maintained  the  Inquisition  from  considerations 
'  of  mistaken  policy,  inherited  from  Louis  XIV.,  who  made  him 

believe  that  such  rigour  would  ensure  the  tranquillity  of  the 

*  kingdom,  which  was  always  in  danger  when  many  religions 
were  tolerated.     Ferdinand  VI.  and  Charles  III.  befriended 

^  this  holy  office,  because  they  would  not  deviate  from  the  course 
'  that  their  father  had  traced,  and  because  the  latter  hated  the 

freemasons.  Lastly,  Charles  FV.  supported  the  tribunal,  be- 
'  cause  the  French  Ee volution  seemed  to  justify  a  system  of 

surveillance,  and  he  found  a  firm  support  in  the  zeal  of  the 

*  inquisitors-general,  always  attentive  to  the  preservation  and 
extension  of  their  power,  as  if  the  sovereign  authority  could 

"  find  no  surer  means  of  strengthening  the  throne  than  the  terror 
inspired  by  an  Inquisition." 

The  Inquisition  has  continued  into  the  present  century.  The 
Spaniards  made  an  abortive  attempt  to  abolish  it  in  1820,  and 
we  learn  that  it  was  mitigated  in   1834 ;   it    can  almost  be 

"  rej^arded  throughout  as  a  modern  institution,  Spain's  defence 
against  the  encroachment  of  enlightenment  through  the  Moors, 

'  the  Jews,  the  Albigenses,  French  infidelity,  and  Luthemnism ! 
It  is  not  so  very  long  since  this  paragraph  appeared  in  a  New 
York  paper:  "What  is  the  matter  with  Spain?  She  seems  to 
be  utterly  dull,  lifeless,  and  inert.  Germany,  France,  and 
Italy  are  pressing  on  grandly  towards  liberal  and  representa- 
tive   government,  sloughing  the  gangrene  of  vicious  political 


OR,  Honour  to  whom  Honour  is  Due.     121 


pra(;ticea,  and  breaking  down  the  barriers  reared  by  the  enemies 
of  the  people.  Everywhere  within  their  boundaries  is  life  and 
activity,  mental  and  physical"        i  ••       •  •  .  •  r   •  .-> .  .i.  fij  t 

Spain's  hope  for  the  future  has  manifestly  lain  in  the 
characteristic  effort  to  gain  spiritual  ascendency  in  the  United 
States  through  foisting  upon  the  young  and  rich  Republic, 
as  discoverer,  saint,  paragon,  claimant-in-chief  for  American 
gratitude,  the  Italian  fanatic  and  charlatan,  Christopher  Co- 
lumbus 1  In  its  folly  and  infatuation,  Spain  no  doubt  looks 
forward  to  the  re-establishment  of  the  Inquisition  on  American 
soil,  where  the  opportunities  for  persecution  and  confiscation 
would  be  more  brilliant  even  than  in  Spain,  when  three  races 
were  extirpated  !  '  .   •  ; 

"With  what  sickening  disgust  and  loathing  one  turns  from  this 
black  picture,  from  the  nation  which,  in  alliance  with  Rome, 
blighted  the  race  I  But  if  Spain,  past  or  present,  is  the  most 
horrible  subject  in  Europe  to  survey,  the  North  is  the  brightest  1 
Spain  blighted,  the  North  saved  1  Spain  exhibits  deformity, 
the  North  the  natural  man ;  one  of  the  finest  types  the  earth 
has  produced,  in  some  attributes  excelling  all  others.  Spain, 
in  devotion  to  its  religion,  laboured  for  the  extinction  of  man- 
hood ;  the  Northern  nations,  whether  inside  or  outside  of  their 
religion,  worshipped  manhood,  and  cultivated  it  to  a  high 
degree  of  perfection  in  themselves.  In  this  they  resembled  the 
Greeks,  but  were  even  more  rigid  in  conforming  to  their  own 
standard  of  excellence,  tolerating  no  defect  or  weakness  in 
themselves.  Whatever  they  did  was  in  obedience  to  the 
requirements  of  their  ideal.  And  this  was  not  from  any  species 
of  fear;  the  hell  of  their  religion,  if  anything  of  so  slight 
religious  substance  can  be  called  a  religion,  was  for  those  who 
felt  fear,  for  cowards ;  there  these  most  despicable  of  wretches 
w§re  consigned  to  a  Palace  of  Anguish,  had  Famine  for  their 
board,  Slowness  and  Delay  for  their  attendants,  and  slept  on  a 
Bed  of  Care  j  and  this  is  so  purely  retributive  justice  that  qq 


'!   •* 


I 


122    The  Icelandic  Discoverers  of  America; 


thinking  person  can  deplore  it.  Their  hell  would  be  filled  with 
the  elect  of  the  Christian  world,  and  Spain,  with  its  two  dis- 
tinguishinj?  national  traits,  "  loyalty  and  superstition,"  would 
go  there  en  maseBf  together  with  the  hordes  of  zealots  it  has 
propagated  in  other  lands,  and  in  its  possessions  in  South 
America.  If  the  Norsemen  worshipped  Odin  and  Thor,  it  was 
because  they  considered  them  good,  brave,  intelligent  fellows, 
worthy  of  admiration,  and  not  because  servile  adoration  was 
obligatory  upon  them  ;  if  any  doubted  the  virtues  or  superior 
excullence  of  these  gods,  they  did  not  hesitate  to  say  so^  and 
did  not  profess  to  revere  them  unlt^ss  this  was  their  sincere 
feeling.  "  The  Inquisition,"  according  to  Lloreate,  "  encouraged 
hypocrisy,  and  punished  those  who  either  did  not  know  how  to, 
or  would  not,  assume  the  mask."  Christianity  in  itself  en- 
couraged hypocrisy;  but  hypocrisy  was  the  vice  that  the  Odin- 
worshippers,  so-called,  considered  most  despicable ;  they  were 
as  free  from  that  as  the  Spaniards  were  from  sincerity.  We  are 
all  of  us,  at  this  present  day,  chiefly  indebted  to  Spain  and  to 
Eome  for  what  Felix  Oswald  calls  "  that  chief  disgrace  of  our 
own  age — the  cowardly  hypocrisy  which,  like  an  all-pervading 
poison- vapour,  taints  the  whole  atmosphere  of  our  social  life." 

A  mythological  religion  did  not  satisfy  the  Northern  mind, 
however  grand  the  mythology  and  exalted  its  personages,  al- 
though the  Southern  mind  could  thrive  for  centuries  on 
*'  Buddhism  and  its  daughter-creed,"  as  Oswald  rightly  designates 
the  Christian  myth,  adding  that  these  "  can  flourish  only  in  a 
sickly  soil.  Christianity  developed  its  first  germs  in  the  carcass 
of  the  decaying  Roman  Empire,  and  still  retains  its  firmest  hold 
upon  the  degenerate  nations  of  Southern  Europe ;  while  the 
manlier  races  of  the  North  resisted  its  propaganda  to  the  last, 
and  were  the  first  to  fiee  themselves  from  its  despotism." 
A.  E.  Holmberg  notes  this  absence  of  the  spirit  of  idolatry  in 
the  Scandinavians:"  Without  doubt  this  lack  (in  the  Asa- 
dootriue)  of  a  rational  morality,  conduced  with  more  thoughtful 


a 

ss 


OR,  Honour  to  whom  Honour  is  Due.  123 

miuds  to  bring  it  iuto  contempt.  We  find,  namely,  as  far  aa 
that  is  concerned,  very  prevalent  free-thinking,  which  directed 
itself  now  to  something  better,  now  to  something  worse,  as  well 
as  a  consequent  tolerance  toward  those  who  thought  differently, 
which,  however,  declined  toward  the  close  of  that  doctrine's 
life." 

That  the  Norsemen  took  their  divinities  entirely  on  their 
merits  is  proven  by  a  multitude  of  anecdotes  from  those  times, 
and  that  they  were  not  allowed  to  subject  Jesus  Christ  to  the 
same  criticism  must  have  been  a  most  surprising  after-revelation 
to  them !  The  following  stories  are  narrated  by  Mallet,  in  his 
"  Northern  Antiquities : "  "  In  the  history  of  Olaf  Tryggveson 
a  warrior  fears  not  to  say  publicly  that  he  relies  much  more  on 
his  own  strength  and  on  his  arms,  than  upon  Thor  or  Odin. 
Another,  in  the  same  book,  speaks  thus  to  his  friend :  '  I  would 
have  thee  know  that  I  believe  neither  in  idols  nor  spirits.  I 
have  travelled  in  many  places;  I  have  met  with  giants  and 
monstrous  men  :  they  could  never  overcome  me  3  thus  to  this 
present  hour  my  own  force  and  courage  are  the  sole  objects  of 
my  belief.* ...  In  an  Icelandic  chronicle  a  vain-glorious  man 
makes  his  boast  to  a  Christian  missionary  that  he  had  never 
yet  acknowledged  any  religion,  and  that  his  own  strength  and 
abilities  were  everything  to  him.  For  the  same  reason  others 
refused  to  sacrifice  to  the  gods  of  whom  they  had  no  need. .  .  . 
In  the  life  of  King  Olaf  Tryggveson,  mention  is  made  of  a  man 
who  was  condemned  to  exile  for  having  sung  in  a  public  place, 
Ferses  the  sense  of  which  was  to  this  purpose,  *  I  will  not  insult 
or  affront  the  gods ;  nevertheless  the  goddess  Freja  inspires  me 
with  no  respect :  it  must  certainly  be  that  either  she  or  Odin 
are  chimerical  deities,* "  .     •    ^       ^ 

Free  to  think  and  act,  to  follow  their  impulses,  the  dearest  aim 
of  the  Norsemen  was  to  cidtivate  character,  to  attain  that 
degree  of  excellence  which  would  make  their  life  a  joy  to  them ; 
their  heaven  was  only  valuable  to  them  as  following  upon  a 


r  1' 

'1:  h  -e 

f 

'   £ 

\ 

•  if, 


41. 


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ns 


124    The  Icelandic  Discoverers  of  America; 

valuable  lifo  here  on  earth,  and  they  were  never  disposed  to 
resign  this  life  for  the  sake  of  a  future  one ;  if  they  sought 
death,  or  met  it  bravely,  it  was  for  other  reasons,  not  savouring 
of  sickly  renunciation.  This  aim  of  theirs  to  be  great,  developed 
a  heroic  age ;  the  warriors  and  the  bards  emulated  each  other, 
one  to  supply  valorous  deeds,  worthy  of  being  eulogized  in  in- 
spired improvization,  the  other  to  praise  these  deeds  as  they 
deserved,  and  transmit  the  memory  of  them  to  posterity.  The 
court  was  the  scene  of  this  laurel-crowning,  and  the  king,  the 
comrade  of  the  warriors,  not  an  isolated  despot  enjoining  homage 
and  plotting  ruin  for  his  subjects,  was  a  fellow-aspirant  for  these 
honours,  gaining  his  glorj'  on  the  same  high  path.  So  much 
were  the  bards  respected,  that  one  of  these,  though  a  stranger, 
needed  no  introduction  at  court.  P.  E.  Miiller,  who  is  one  of 
tha  most  reliable  of  authors  on  this  subject,  asserts  that  "  no 
nation  ever  possessed  a  poetry  more  strictly  national  than  the 
Scandinavian."  This  was  due  to  the  fact  that  the  individuals 
of  the  nation  possessed  character,  that  their  actions  and  thoughts 
were  spontaneous,  allowing  free  play  to  their  genius,  which  in 
its  turn,  feeling  no  curb  or  restriction,  engendered  a  boundless  am- 
bition and  love  of  fame.  "  Harold  H&rfager's  reign,"  says  Miiller, 
"  was  the  Augustan  age  of  the  Scalds.  Ambitious  and  warlike, 
he  kept  a  splendid  court,  to  which  he  sought  to  draw  all  the 
distinguished  men  of  his  country,"  The  advent  of  Christianity 
changed  things  in  this  reppoct.  The  sume  author  continues: 
"  Olaf  Tryggveson's  zeal  for  Christianity  caused  him  rather  to 
discourage  than  to  favour  the  Scalds ;  but  one  of  tliem,  indig- 
nant at  seeing  his  art  slighted,  forced  the  king  to  listen  to  his 
song,  by  declaring  that  if  he  did  not,  he  would  immediately 
abjure  Christianity,  which  Olaf,  with  much  trouble,  had  induced 
him  to  embrace."  Some  other  words  of  Miiller's  bear  upon  the 
point  I  have  drawn  attention  to,  the  cultivation  of  character 
among  the  Norsemen,  an  object  which  the  Christians  have 
uniformly  neglected  out  of  contempt  for  their  own  nature,  and 


OR,  Honour  to  whom  Honour  is  Due.     125 


human  nature  in  general,  and  the  other  members  of  the  com- 
munity, in  modern  times,  passive  Christians  for  the  most  part, 
wearing  the  badge,  but  evading  the  observances,  have  set  aside, 
for  the  reason  that  the  pursuit  of  knowledge  or  wealth  was 
more  agreeable  to  them,  requiring  one  or  other  of  these  to 
stimulate  pride  in  themselves  or  even  self-respect.  The  modern 
man,  as  a  rule,  has  no  very  great  respect  for  character  in  the 
abstract,  does  not  believe  in  it,  in  fact ;  he  believes  that  men 
are  made  by  their  circumstances,  not  tliat  truth,  courage,  sin- 
cerity, goodness,  have  the  slightest  power  in  and  of  themselves, 
or  that  these  mould  circumstances.  Here  we  see  the  blessed 
fruits  of  the  Spanish  Inquisition.  The  stigma  still  attached  to 
heresy,  heterodox  views  or  freethought,  is  another. 

The  words  of  Miiller  referred  to  are  these:  "The  importance 
attached  by  the  Scandinavians  to  the  delineation  of  character  is 
evident  from  the  language  itself,  which  is  much  richer  than  any 
other  of  Europe  in  all  terms  expressive  of  characteristic  qualities, 
whether  of  mind  or  body,  so  as  to  be  f.lle  to  convey  the  strength, 
weakness,  obstinacy,  quarrelsome  or  peaceable  disposition  of 
every  individual  in  its  finest  shades."  The  vocation  of  Scald, 
therefore,  was  one  that  required  the  nicest  discrimination  and 
power  of  analysis,  as  well  as  rhetorical  skill,  and  as  absolute 
truthfulness  was  demanded  both  by  the  subject  of  the  epic,  if 
he  happened  to  be  present,  and  the  assembled  hearers,  this 
could  only  be  gained  by  accuracy  of  perception,  the  same  exact- 
ness in  delineating  traits  of  character,  all  that  pertains  to  one 
individuality  as  distinct  from  another,  as  an  artist  must  use  in 
portraying  features  that  are  to  be  a  true  likeness  of  the  sitter. 
As  knowledge  of  character  could  only  be  attained  through 
knowledge  of  the  world,  and  as  the  characters  to  be  drawn,  far 
from  being  simple,  provincial  ones,  of  a  settled  type,  were  com- 
plex, finely-organized  ones,  developed  through  the  largest  inter- 
course with  foreign  nations,  none  but  the  most  accomplished 
men  of  the  world  were  competent  to  imdertake  the  ta»k  of 


s 


Mi.f 

mi 
1,'  i.ii 


'  ..t" 


126    The  Icelandic  Discoverers  of  America; 


making  that  first  oral  record  of  their  attributes,  personality,  and 
deeds  that  was  to  be  preserved  and  transmitted  as  history. 
That  the  narratives  from  these  times  which  claim  to  be  historical, 
as  distinct  from,  fabulons, romantic,  or  n.ythological,are  uniformly 
vouched  for,  by  the  best  authorities  of  the  present  day,  as 
authentic  and  reliable,  is  due  to  the  correctness  of  the  first 
analysis  and  description  of  the  Scalds,  the  eye-witnesses  and 
keen,  in^rrruptibie  judges  of  the  events  and  persons  they 
described.  One  could  almost  venture  to  say  that  this  in  itself  ren- 
ders" ancient  Scandinavian  history  more  valuable  and  trustworthy 
than  any  other.  After  the  introduction  of  Christianity  not  even 
a  Scald  of  the  North  cculd  dare  to  "  speak  the  truth,  the  whole 
truth,  and  nothing  but  the  truth  1"  That  which  a  Spanish 
writer  says  of  the  Moors:  "Their  trustworthiness  was  such, 
that  their  bare  word  was  more  relied  on  than  a  written  contract 
78  now  among  us,"  and  the  rules  of  life  laid  down  in  HS,vamSl: 
"  A  man  ought  to  be  self-reliant,  wise,  prudent,  mild,  hospitable, 
temperate,  firm  in  friendship,  magnanimous  toward  the  weak 
and  those  seeking  protection,  inflexible  in  his  promises  and 
faithful  iu  his  obligations,"  were  only  possible  among  those  who 
were  un-Christianized. 

Consequently  the  Scalds  travelled  abroad,  going  from  court 
to  court,  not  only  for  fame  and  profit,  but  to  perfect  themselves 
in  their  high  calling,  to  learn  to  see  with  their  own  eyes  and  to 
judge  with  their  own  understanding ;  such  was  their  ability  to 
form  an  opinion  of  their  ovta  and  to  rely  on  it,  that  it  is  doubtful 
whether  they  would  have  read  columns  upon  columns  in  the 
newspapers  to  know  what  was  general!/  thought  of  such  and 
such  a  hero,  general,  king,  or  leader,  even  if  newspapers  had 
been  at  their  command,  and  no  instance  is  recorded  of  a  Scald 
going  to  a  f<ecret  group  of  other  Scalds  to  get  th(ir  opinion  of 
some  high  person  before  he  committed  himself  to  an  open 
avowal.  Much  as  they  worshipped  fame,  theirs  was  not  the 
name-worship  and  labol-worship  of  the  present  day,  an  ntter 


:/0R,  Honour  to  v.^iiom  Honour  is  Due.    12'/ 


inability  to  value  the  work,  or  the  production,  or  the  deed,  until 
they  knew  the  name  of  the  well  established  celebrity  who 
could  claim  the  honour  of  it.  Fame  was  of  that  summer's 
growth,  was  plucked  ripe  from  the  branch,  fresh  fruit  for  fresh 
young  lips,  and  no  aspirant  was  kept  waiting.  If  the  hero  was 
a  boy,  a  mere  stripling,  he  enjoyed  the  same  honour  as  if  a  grey- 
haired  man,  in  fact  more ;  the  Norsemen  were  not  over  fond  of 
senility,  and  for  a  man  to  outlive  his  usefulness  was  a  great 
reproach.  Whatever  fame  a  man  was  deserving  of  he  received, 
and  received  quickly  ;  the  Scald  apparently  was  such  a  personi- 
fication of  just  criticism  as  modern  civilization  has  not  bten 
blessed  with. 

In  Laing's  preliminary  dissertation  to  the  "  Heimskringl.i," 
there  is  much  said  in  ^heir  praise:  "From  their  opportuniti'S 
of  visiting  various  countries,  the  Icolandic  Scalds  were  un- 
doubtedly the  educated  men  of  the  times  when  books  did  not 
in  any  way  contribute  to  intelligence,  or  to  forming  the  mind; 
but  only  extensive  intercourse  with  raen,  and  tlie  information 
gathered  from  it.  .  .  .  They  had  also  the  advantage  of  speaking 
in  its  greatest  purity  what  was  the  court  language  in  Norway, 
Sweden,  Denmark,  England,  and  at  Rouen."  Grenville  Pigott 
adds  another  fact  in  regard  to  them:  "It  was  not  therefore 
until  some  time  after  the  race   of  Scalds  was  extinct  in  the 


three  groat  Scandinavian  kingdoms,  that  those  of  ioeland 
attained  their  highest  perfection.  Their  fame  spread  abroad, 
and  the  successful  examples  of  Eigil  Skalagrimson  and  of  some 
others,  encouraged  them  to  perfect  themselves,  and  to  travel 
from  court  to  court  in  search  of  fame  and  profit.  "We  accordingly 
hear  of  them  in  the  courts  of  England,  Ireland,  Scotbmd, 
Norway,  Sweden,  Denmark,  the  courts  of  the  Orkneys,  und  in 
various  other  places."  •  ' '  -'     ■  "''• 

But  if  the  Scald  was  a  good  critic,  he  was  also  in  presence  of 
a  good  critic  in  the  person  of  the  king  be  extolled,  the  practical 
hero,  as  a  rule,  being  possessed  of  what  we  consider,  in  this 


m 


J* 


128    The  Icelandic  Discoverers  of  America; 

ago,  the  impractical  part  of  a  man's  equipment  for  the  world, 
intellectual  gifts.  The  kings  and  heroes  were  not  infrequently 
Scalils  themselves,  just  as  the  Scalds  were  very  often  tried 
warriors.  "  The  famous  king  Ragnar  Lodbrok,  his  queen  Aslog 
or  Aslauga,  and  his  adventurous  sons,  who  distinguished  them- 
sohes  by  their  maritime  incursions  into  England  and  France  in 
the  uinth  century,  were  all  Scalds,"  as  Wheaton  informs  us,  and 
Miillet  says:  "  In  a  word,  the  poetic  art  was  held  in  such  high 
estimation,  that  great  lords  and  even  kings  did  not  disdain  to 
cultivate  it  with  the  utmost  pains  themselves."  As  for  the 
kinj,'s,  two  of  them  at  least,  Thomas  Carlyle  has  a  h'irhly 
characteristic  word  to  say  about  them:  "Remarkable  old  r  ; 
these  two  first  kings  "  (Harold  H&rfager  and  Gorm  the  Old)  j 
"  and  possessed  of  gifts  for  bringing  Chaos  a  little  nearer  to  the 
form  of  Cosmos ;  possessed,  in  fact,  of  loyalties  to  Cosmos,  that 
is  to  say,  of  authentic  virtues  in  the  savage  state,  such  as  have 
been  needed  in  all  societies  at  their  incipience  in  this  world ;  a 
kind  of  '  virtues '  hugely  in  discredit  at  present,  but  not  un- 
liki  ly  to  be  needed  again,  to  the  astonishment  of  careless 
per.-ons,  before  all  is  done  1 " 

And  the  courts  1  It  would  seem  that  these  were  not  un- 
worthy of  the  Scalds.  Pigott  says  :  "  The  courts  of  the  first 
Dukes  of  Normandy,  composed  exclusively  of  the  descendants  of 
the  Scandinavian  conquerors  of  Neustria,  and  continually 
recruited  from  their  kinsmen  in  the  North,  were  the  most 
polished  and  chivalrous  of  the  time ;  and  it  is  notorious  that 
the  chiefs  who  accompanied  "William  to  the  Conquest  of  Eng- 
land, looked  upon  the  uncouth  manners  of  the  Anglo-Saxon 
nobles  with  undisguised  contempt."  He  also  recalls  the  fact 
that  "the  great  traveller,  Pythias,  who  lived  about  the  time  of 
Alexander  the  Great,  and  later,  Tacitus,  described  the  Scandi- 
navians as  superior  in  civilization  to  the  Celts  and  Germans." 
"  Theii  royal  house,"  says  Adam  of  Bremen,  speaking  of  the 
Sweden,  "  is  very  ancient ;  but  the  king's  power  depends  ovl  tho 


«^ 


a 


i 


OR,  Honour  to  whom  Honour  is  Dub.    129 

voice   of  the   people."     Miiller,    as  we  have  seen,   corQi>ares 
Harold  H&rfager's  reign  to  the  Augustan  age. 

The  courts,  then,  were  the  hotbeds  of  Scandinavian  literature 
and  history,  and  the  Scalds  were  the  gardeners.  It  now  be- 
hoves us  to  consider  the  quality  of  this  literature.  That  it  is 
reliable,  historically,  is  its  highest  excellence,  particularly  now 
when  history  has  been  proven  such  treacherous  ground  ;  "  Prof. 
Miiller  shows,"  says  Pigott,  "  that  the  greater  portion  of  the  early 
Sagas  may  be  depended  upon  as  faithful  historical  narratives." 
Wilhelmi,  in  his  "  Discovery  of  America  by  the  Northmen 
500  years  before  Columbus,"  goes  still  further,  and  dechirea 
that  the  Eddas  and  the  old  Norse  sagor,  and  not  Caesar,  Tacitus, 
Procopius,  Jornandes,  Paulus  Diaconus,  Adam  of  Bremen,  and 
the  rest,  were  the  especial  sources  of  knowledge  of  the  religious 
doctrines  of  the  Germans.  In  the  "  *  Heimskringla,' "  he  says, 
*'we  obtain  from  the  narratives  of  the  Icelanders*  extensive 
journeys  through  all  Europe  to  Rome,  Constantinople,  and 
Jerusalem,  also  the  knowledge  of  the  history,  geography  and 
antiquity  of  eastern,  western  and  southern  Europe."  So  thosa 
were  no  local  annals  of  a  single  obscure  race  1  In  regard  to  the 
extent  of  this  literature,  Laing  contributes  some  valuable  inlbr- 
niation:  "The  following  list  will  show  the  reader" — one  taken 
ki^-x'.  that  given  by  Thormod  Torfaeus,  in  his  "Series  Dynastarum 
c  i  flgum  DanicB,"  from  that  given  by  Miiller,  in  his  "  S;lga- 
J  ^■  ul^ek,"  and  from  that  of  Biom  Haldorson — "that  in  the 
J&Vb  ce.xturies  between  the  days  of  the  venerable  Bede  and  tliose 
of  Matthew  Paris,  that  is  from  the  ninth  to  the  end  of  the  thir- 
teenth century,  the  northern  branch  of  the  common  race  was  not 
destitute  of  intellectuality,  notwithstanding  all  their  paganism  and 
barbarism,  and  had  a  literature  adapted  to  their  national  spirit, 
and  wonderfully  extensive."  In  this  list  of  169  works,  forty- 
eight  are  historical,  and  forty-six  works  of  fiction,  while  the 
remainder  are  mixed  fable  and  history,  poetical  or  mythologi  al 
worka     Besides  these^  there  are  other  works  cited   by   the 


b 


% 


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it 


.1  i 


I30    The  Icelandic  Discoverers  of  America; 


ancient  historians  "  Si'arcely  any  of  it,"  observes  Laing,  "  con- 
sists of  the  legends  of  saints,  or  homilies,  or  theological  treatises, 
which  constitute  the  greater  proportion  of  the  literature  of 
other  countries  during  the  same  ages,  and  which  were  evidently 
composed  only  for  the  public  of  the  cloisters."  An  eminent 
American  author,  Hubert  Howe  Bancroft,  expresses  an  opinion 
concerning  European  literature,  during  this  and  a  later  period, 
that  coincides  perfectly  with  the  statement  here  given: 
"Learning  .»"ch  as  it  was,  had  hitherto  been  almost  the 
exclusive  pir.^  of  the  Church,  which  vehemently  repudiated 
science  eis  absOi^^tely  incompatible  with  its  pretensions;  now 
and  then  gleams  of  important  truths  would  flash  up  in  the 
writings  of  some  heretical  philosopher,  illuminating  for  a 
moment  the  path  of  intellectual  progress ;  but  such  dangerous 
fires  were  speedily  quenched,  and  that  they  might  not  spring 
forth  again  to  endanger  the  religious  equilibrium  of  Christendom, 
their  authors  were  generally  destroyed.  The  literature  of  the 
age  consisted  for  the  most  part  of  musty  manuscripts,  emanating 
from  musty  minds,  utterly  devoid  of  thought  and  destitute  of 
reason." 

After  dwelling  on  the  peculiar  quality  of  mind,  and  the 
prowess  of  the  Scandinavians,  Laing  continues:  "It  will  not  at 
least  surprise  the  philosophic  reader  that  some  of  this  mental 
power  was  applied  at  home  in  attempts,  however  rude,  at  history 
and  poetry  ;  but  he  will  be  surprised  to  find  that  those  attempts 
surpass,  both  in  quality  and  quantity,  all  that  can  be  produced 
in  Anglo  Saxon  literature  during  the  same  ages,  either  in  the 
Anglo-Saxon  language  or  in  the  Latin."  In  regard  to  Snorre 
Sturleson's  '*  Chronicles  of  the  Kings  of  Norway,"  he  says: ''  His 
work  stands  unrivalled  in  the  Middle  Ages.  In  that  class  of 
literary  production — the  lively  representation  of  historical  events 
by  incidents,  anecdotes,  speeches,  touches  true  to  nature,  bring- 
ing out  strongly  the  character  and  individuality  of  each  eminent 
actor  in  historical  events — it  may  be  doubted  if,  even  since  the 


) 


OR,  Honour  to  whom  Honour  is  Due.    131 


the 

)tat 

[ntal 

[tory 

ipts 

iced 

the 


Middle  Ages,  any,  excepting  Shakespeare  and  Sir  Walter 
Scott  in  their  historical  representations,  have  surpassed  Snurie 
Sturleson."   ;>  ..    ■  .,    .;  .^     v,  -      '.■■  -<  r- 'i';..-:'* 

Wheaton  offers  further  evidence  of  the  concurrence  of  authors 
in  respect  to  the  merits  of  ancient  Scandinavian  literature:  "In 
Iceland  an  independent  literature  grew  up,  flourished,  and  was 
brought  to  a  certain  degree  of  perfection,  before  the  revival  of 
learning  in  the  south  of  Europe.  This  island  was  not  converted 
to  Christianity  until  the  end  of  the  tenth  century,  when  the 
national  literature,  which  still  remained  in  oral  tradition,  was 
full-blown  and  ready  to  be  committed  to  a  written  form.  With 
the  Komish  religion,  Latin  letters  were  introduced ;  but  instead 
of  being  used,  as  elsewhere,  to  write  a  dead  language,  they  were 
adapted  by  the  learned  men  of  Iceland  to  mark  the  sounds 
which  had  been  before  expressed  by  the  Runic  characters." 
His  words  ^^ the  renvoi  of  learning  in  the  south  of  Europe" 
bring  to  one's  mind  the  extinction  of  learning  there,  incident 
upon  the  in",  )duction  of  "  the  blessed  light  of  Christianity,"  as 
it  is  rapturously  styled.  It  is  hard  to  believe  that  the  following 
was  ever  true  of  the  country  where  Christianity  was  allowed  to 
shed  its  full  effulgence  and  germinate  its  peculiar  products: 
"  Spain,  a  {)rovincial  part  of  Arabian  dominion,  was  especially 
the  seat  of  Arabian  learning.  Cordova,  Granada,  Seville,  and  all 
the  cities  of  the  peninsula,  rivalled  each  other  in  the  mag- 
nificence of  their  schools,  academies,  colleges,  and  libraiies." 
And  what  were  the  effects  of  that  enlightened  and  beneficent 
faith  upon  literature  and  learning  1  Llorente  states:  "  Since  the 
establishment  of  the  holy  otfice,  there  has  scarcely  been  any 
man  celebrated  for  his  learning,  who  has  not  been  prosecuted  as 
a  heretic ;"  and  he  gives  a  most  appalling  list  of  the  victims 
among  savants  and  literati,  besides  describing  many  of  the  trials 
and  aiito8-(la-fe.  "  The  theological  censures,"  he  says,  "  like- 
wi>o  attack  wnrkf  on  philos(>phy,  on  civil  and  natural  law,  ani 
on   the  people.    Those  books  which  have  been  published   ou 


■i ' 


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o.  i. 


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K  2 


132    The  Icelandic  Discoverers  of  America; 


mathematics,  astronomy,  physic  and  other  subjects  which 
depend  upon  these,  have  not  been  more  highly  favoured.  The 
Spaniards  have,  consequently,  been  deprived  of  the  advantages 
which  other  nations  have  derived  from  all  the  recent  dis- 
covories." 

No  wonder  then,  knowing  the  "  Twly  office  "  as  he  did,  that 
ho  was  amazed  at  what  he  experienced  in  England  1  I  quote  his 
own  words:  "  During  the  time  I  remained  in  London,  I  heard 
some  Catholics  affirm  that  the  Inquisition  was  iLseful  in  Spain ^ 
to  presei-ve  the  Catholic  faith,  and  that  a  similar  institution 
would  have  been  useful  in  France." 

How  extraordinary,  in  the  face  of  these  execrable  facts,  of 
the  chronology  of  horrors  designated  as  the  MidiUe  Ages — it  is 
a  strange  coincidence  that  the  black  death  was  brought  from 
Palestine  to  Apulia  and  raged  from  1347  to  1351 — of  the  woe 
and  desolation,  the  brutal  ignorance  and  diabolism  that  reigned 
supreme,  and  were  the  in)mediate  results  of  the  establishment  of 
Christianity  (the  edict  of  the  Emperor  Theodius  against  the  Ma- 
nicheans,  in  3S2,  being  the  virtual  origin  of  the  Inquisition,  for, 
as  Llorente  states,  *'  it  is  here  that  inquisition  and  accusation 
are  first  mentioned  in  relation  to  heresy  ") — how  extraordinary, 
I  repeat,  that  any  authors,  outside  of  the  priesthood,  can  at- 
tribute all  the  good  that  has  befallen  the  race  to  this  accursed 
idolatry  1  Even  so  intelligent  an  author  as  Mallet,  after 
expressing  the  highest  admiration  of  the  Scandinavians,  and 
mentioning  especially  those  traits  of  character  which  were  the 
direct  antitheses  of  Christian  traits,  as  impossible  in  a  Christian 
convei-t  as  a  lighted  torch  in  a  ditch, — writes  such  sickening 
twaddle  as  this:  "  Such  was  the  immediate  effect  of  Christianity 
in  the  north,  an  event  which,  considered  only  in  a  philosophical 
light,  should  be  ever  regarded  as  the  dawn  of  those  happy  days 
which  were  afterwards  to  shine  out  with  superior  splendour. 
In  effect,  this  religion,  which  tended  to  correct  the  abuse  of 
licentious  liberty^  to  banish  bloody  dissensions  from  among 


OR,  ttoNOtJR  to  WHOM  HoNOtJR  IS  DUB.     1 33 


of 


indiviilufils,  to  restrain  robberies  and  piracy,  softening  the 
ferocity  of  manners,  requiring  a  certain  knowledge  of  letters  and 
history,  re-establishing  a  part  of  mankind,  who  groaned  under 
a  miserable  slavery,  in  their  natural  rights,  introducing  a  relish 
for  a  life  of  peace,  and  an  idea  of  happiness  independent  of 
sensual  gratifications,  sowed  the  seeds,  if  I  may  so  speak,  of 
that  new  spirit  which  grew  to  maturity  in  the  succeeding  a^es, 
and  to  which  the  arts  and  sciences,  springing  up  along  witli  it> 
added  still  more  strength  and  vigour."  Could  a  greater  satire 
be  found  than  this  upon  the  actual  conditions  resulting  from 
Christianity?  It  is  a  work  of  supererogation  to  single  <»ut 
particular  phrases,  such  as  "  the  dawn  of  those  happy  days," 
"  to  correct  the  abuse  of  licentious  liberty,"  "  to  banish  bloody 
dissensions,"  "to  restrain  robberies  and  piracy,"  "requiring  a 
certain  knowledge  of  letters  and  history,"  &c.,  as  specimens  of 
exquisite,  although  unconscious,  irony;  it  will  suffice  to  1  lot 
out  this  pernicious  nonsense  with  one  sharp  sentence  of  Felix 
Oswald's:  "  The  warriors  of  the  old  pagan  Northland,  with  all 
their  martial  truculence,  would  have  shuddered  at  the  mention 
of  the  inhumanities  which  their  children  perpetrated  at  the 
instigation  of  their  priests."  No,  "the  dawn  of  those  happy 
days"  actually  culminated  in  this:  "At  the  end  of  the  thir- 
teenth century,  the  enemies  of  nature  had  reached  the  zenitli  of 
their  power ;  and,  at  that  time,  it  may  be  said  that  icitluut  a 
tingle  exceptioUf  the  countries  of  Christian  Europe  were  m  orse 
governed,  more  ignorant,  more  superstitious,  poorer,  and  un- 
happier  than  the  worse  governed  province  of  pagan  Rome." 
Til  is  is  Oswald's  assertion  again,  and  is  absolutely  true. 

This  anti-naturalism,  alas  1  also  fastened  itself  upon  the  Noith, 
The  Norse  nature,  fortunately,  was  not  as  receptive  to  the 
poison  as  the  Spanish,  in  fact,  was  not  receptive  to  it  at  all ; 
the  Scandinavians  did  not  accept  Christianity  voluntarily,  but 
they  were  deceived  and  forced  into  the  acceptance  of  it,  not 
knowing  what  it  was.    Although  intellectual  beings^  shrewd  and 


5  r 


134    The  Icelandic  Discoverers  of  America; 


sn<,'n«-ious,  they  ha<l  n«»tbing  in  their  mental  en<lo\vment  that 
could  imagine  or  fathom  the  hellish  craft  and  ingenuity  of  the 
Koman  Catholics ;  neither  their  moral  nor  spiritual  experience 
could  enable  them  to  anticipate  what  this  new  religion  really 
was,  or  would  do  to  them.  In  Spain,  on  the  other  hand,  it 
was  almost  indigenous.  Once  there,  however,  in  the  North,  it 
could  not  fail  to  have  its  customary  effect,  differing  only  in 
intensity,  inasmuch  as  the  innate  freedom  of  the  Northern  mind 
could  never  cease  to  battle  with  the  insidious  oppressor.  Thanks 
to  this  resistance,  "  the  churchmen  were  not  a  numerous  or 
powerful  class  until  after  the  first  half  of  the  twelfth  century ; 
they  were  at  first  strangers,  and  many  of  them  English."  And 
thanks  to  this  same  resistance.  Bishop  Brask,  who  tried  to 
introduce  the  Inquisition  in  Sweden,  early  in  the  sixteenth 
century,  failed  in  the  attempt.  The  writings  of  the  very  first 
Icelander  who  began  to  transcribe  the  history  of  the  North,  or 
to  reproduce  the  Sagor,  betrayed  the  Christian  touch.  This 
man  was  Are  hinn  Erode,  whose  work  dates  from  about  1120. 
He  was  a  priest.  Concerning  his  production,  Wheaton  says : 
f  His  work,  the '  Landnamma-Bok,'  is  therefore  to  be  considered 
rather  as  a  chronicle  of  the  Christian  Middle  Ages  than  a  child  of 
the  Northern  muse.  But  his  talents  as  an  historian  are  in- 
comparably superior  to  his  monkish  contemporaries  on  the 
Continent.  He  always  writes  with  the  good  sense  and  the 
manly  freedom  of  a  citizen  and  a  patriot,  unaffected  with  that 
grovelling  spirit  of  superstition  which  then  darkened  the  face 
of  Europe."  His  annals  extend  from  the  latter  part  of  the 
ninth  century  to  the  beginning  of  the  twelfth.  ;■,;'</  .,■  ;ud^^ 
Fortunately  the  Sagor  had  been  composed  before  ;  to  collect 
and  transcribe  these  was  the  principal  duty  of  the  early  writers, 
and  their  patriotism,  conscientiousness,  and  habitual  truthful- 
.ness,  led  them  to  do  this  faithfully.  The  old  material  was 
sedulously  collected  and  put  into  permanent  shape,  but  the 
Christian  religion  soon  deprived  them  of  new,  by  changing  the 


'     OR,  Honour  to  whom  Honour  is  Due.    135 

P]>irit  of  the  age.  This  is  shown  inferentially  by  the  following 
paragraph  from  Pigott's  "  Scandinavian  Mythology:'*  *'In  the 
year  1262  Iceland  was  united  to  the  crown  of  Norway.  By  this 
revolution  it  was  indeed  freed  from  the  miseries  brought  upon 
it  by  its  turbulent  chiefs ;  but  all  interest  in  public  affairs  thence- 
forth died  away,  and  no  Sagas  were  written,  because  there  was 
nothing  to  write  about.  They  were  replaced  by  dry  chronicles, 
which  also  ceased  with  the  great  plague  in  1350,  and  were  not 
resumed  until  so  late  as  the  seventeenth  century." 

Still  the  darkness  did  not  settle  down  upon  the  North  as  upon 
the  rest  of  Europe,  and  but  a  few  yejirs  ago  Wilhelmi  could  ex- 
claim :  "  Iceland's  old  glory  has  not  yet  disappeared,  but  reminds 
one,  on  the  contrary,  of  the  scientific  life,  "which  still  develops 
itself  there,  of  the  brilliant  antiquity,  when  this  remote  island, 
in  the  neighbourhood  of  the  North  Pole,  was,  in  a  scientific 
respect,  one  of  the  brujhtest  points  on  earth." 

And,  indeed,  how  could  it  fail  to  be ;  how  could  all  Scandi- 
navia fail  to  be  one  of  the  brightest  points  on  earth,  with  such 
people  as  are  described  in  the  following  paragraph  1  And  by  a 
foreigner,  too,  quoted  in  the  first  part  of  "  Sveriges  Historia  :  " 
"  A  stranger,  who  in  an  unusually  high  degree  made  himself 
familiar  with  the  condition  in  the  North  during  the  time  that 
is  now  in  question,  aays  of  the  Norsemen  and  their  liie  during 
the  last  century  of  paganism  :  '  The  stress  that  was  laid  upon 
intercourse  with  other  persons,  and  the  love  for  joyous  festivals, 
woman's  free  and  respected  position,  as  well  as  the  profound 
understanding  of  her  relation  to  man,  which  is  not  seldom  ex- 
pressed in  the  Sagor,  the  high  value  that  was  assigned  to  the 
poetic  art  and  all  attainments,  the  zeal  with  which  one,  through 
travel  in  foreign  countries,  sought  to  acquire  knowledge,  to- 
gether with  many  other  traits  in  the  ancient  Northern  folk-life, 
show,  that  one  did  not  only  take  life  from  the  dismal  and  rude 
side,  and  that  we  m-  st  not  by  any  means  imagine  the  Scandi- 
navian pagans  to  be  such  savage  and  insensible  barbarians  at 


lit 


ft    irt'' 


136   The  IcELAi^DTC  Discoverers  of  America; 


in 


they  are  usually  described  by  their  English  and  French  enemies. 
In  physical  attributes  these  Northerners  were  also  conspicuous 
and  compelled  the  admiration  of  their  foes.  A.  K  Holmberg 
states  that  "  the  foreign  annalists,  who  have  had  an  opportunity 
to  take  closer  cognizance  of  the  Northmen  who  overran  Europe 
during  the  Viking  expeditions,  coincide  therein,  that  they  have 
never  seen  handsomer  or  taller  men  than  these  robbers,  at  the 
same  time  that  they  praise  their  strength  and  bravery  and  also 
such  traits  of  character  as  keeping  their  word  and  the  like." 

It  was  no  ferocious  and  bloodthirsty  impulse  that  led  them 
into  warfare  ;  they  made  war  because  this  was  to  them  the  path 
of  glory.  Their  religion,  so  to  speak,  enforced  bravery,  just  as 
the  Christian  doctrine  enforced  cowardice.  Thomas  Carlyle 
describes  it  well,  when  he  says  :  "  That  Norse  religion,  a  rude 
but  earnest,  sternly  impressive  Consecration  of  Valour  (so  we  may 
define  it)  sufficed  for  these  old  valiant  Norsemen."  And  did 
the  Christians  then  never  fight,  never  wage  war,  never  shed 
blood,  that  they  denounce  all  this  so  fiercely  in  the  Norsemen  1 
And  which  were  the  nobler,  wars,  or  crusades,  for  the  extermi- 
nation of  heretics,  or  wars  of  conquest  over  depraved  and 
enfeebled  Catholic  nations  for  the  purpose  of  founding  better 
nations  on  the  ruins  of  the  old,  of  establishing  free  institu- 
tions and  manly  customs  1  Was  an  instance  ever  known  of 
the  Scandinavians  making  a  nation  worse  than  they  found  it  ? 
Their  incursions  were  a  severe  remedy,  to  be  wsure,  but  has  the 
thinking  world  ever  considered  how  things  would  have  been  if 
the  Vikings  had  never  made  any  expeditions,  but  had  remained 
quietly  at  home,  allowing  the  swarms  of  black-gowned  priests 
to  rule  the  whole  of  Europe  with  the  crucifix  and  to  settle  its 
fate  for  all  time  1  And  when  we  Americans  owe  what  we  value 
most  in  life  to  the  grand  Norse  conquests,  why  should  we  be 
loth  to  ascribe  the  same  glory  to  tLese  ancient  conquerors  as  to 
Napoleon  or  any  other  modem  general  1 

To  be  sure^  they  did  not  parad<3  their  intentions  in  the  way  of 


OR,  Honour  to  whom  Honour  is  Due.  137 

«_ . 

national  reform  and  republican  organizations,  but  after  theii 
conquests  the  result  was  invariably  the  same,  the  work  of  recon- 
struction was  begun  at  once,  and  all  Europe  was,  in  fact,  re- 
modelled by  them.  Mallet  does  them  full  justice  in  tlio 
following  description:  "In  effect,  we  everywhere  see  in  those 
swarms  of  Germans  and  Scandinavians,  a  troop  of  savaj^o 
warriors,  who  seem  only  born  for  ravage  and  destruction, 
changed  into  a  sensible  and  free  people  as  soon  a-s  ever  they  had 
confirmed  their  conquests ;  impregnating  (if  I  may  so  say)  their 
institutions  with  a  spirit  of  order  and  equality ;  electing  for 
their  kings  such  of  their  princes  of  the  blood  royal  as  they 
judged  most  worthy  to  wear  the  crown ;  dividing  betwef^n  thoso 
kings  and  the  whole  nation  the  exercise  of  the  sovereign  power ; 
reserving  to  the  general  assemblies  the  right  of  making  laws  and 
deciding  important  matters ;  and  lastly,  to  give  a  solid  support 
to  the  powers  immediately  essential  to  monarchy,  distributing 
fiefs  to  the  principal  warriors,  and  assigning  certain  privileges 
proper  to  the  several  orders  of  the  state." 

"Warfare,  too,  aside  from  its  martial  or  political  bearing,  was 
their  chosen  method  for  the  perfecting  of  character,  absolute 
courage  being  the  finishing  touch.  They  fought  joyously, 
jubilantly,  and  met  death  with  a  laugh.  "  Accordingly,"  says 
Mallet,  "  we  never  find  any  among  these  people  guilty  of 
cowardice,  and  the  bare  suspicion  of  that  vice  was  always 
attended  with  Tiniversal  contempt.  ,  .  .  Lastly,  like  the  heroe%  of 
Homer,  those  of  ancient  Scandinavia,  in  the  excess  of  their 
over-boiling  courage,  dared  to  defy  the  gods  themselves. 
*  Though  they  should  bo  stronger  than  the  gods,'  says  a  boastful 
warrior,  speaking  of  his  enemies,  *I  would  absolutely  fight 
them.'" 

But  these  people  were  much  else  besides  warriors,  were  as 
remarkable  for  their  versatility  as  for  their  surpassing  ability  in 
certain  directions.  Thus  Laing  observes  :  "  In  the  characters  of 
great  men  given  iu  the  sagas  wo  alwa^r-find  eljquence,  ready. 


138    The  Icelandic  Discoverers  of  Ameiiica  ; . 


agreeable  speaking,  a  good  voice,  a  quick  apprehension,  a  ready 
delivery,  and  winning  manners,  reckoned  the  highest  qualities 
of  a  popular  king  or  eminent  chief.  His  talent  as  a  pubUc 
speaker  is  never  omitted."  And  Prof.  R.  B.  Anderson,  too, 
exclaims  :  "  Yes ;  the  Norsemen  were  truly  a  great  people ! 
Their  spirit  found  its  way  into  the  Magna  Charta  of  England 
and  into  the  Declaration  of  Independence  in  America.  The 
spirit  of  the  Vikings  still  survives  in  the  bosoms  of  Englishmen, 
Americans,  and  Norsemen,  extending  their  commerce,  taking 
bold  positions  against  tyranny,  and  producing  wonderful  internal 
improvements  in  these  countries." 

In  the  Norsemen  one  continually  has  the  gratifying  surprise 
of  hearing  of  a  race  who,  in  all  the  main  political  and  social 
questions,  were  right  in  themselves,  without  the  need  of  reform 
or  agitation.  That  the  people,  in  Scandinavia,  had  a  voice  ^ 
public  aflfairs,  is  best  proven  by  the  fact  that  the  people 
America  and  England  are  free,  at  least  comparatively  so,  in  a 
political  respect.  Laing  says  of  this  :  "  Our  civil,  religious,  and 
political  rights, — the  principles,  spirit,  and  forms  of  legislation 
through  which  they  work  in  our  social  union,  are  the  legitimate 
offspring  of  the  Things  of  the  Noithnien,  not  of  the  Wittenage- 
moth  of  the  Anglo-Saxons — of  the  independent  Norse  Viking, 
not  of  the  abject  Saxon  monk." 

But  nothing  gives  such  conclusive  evidence  that  our  present 
st'ate  of  civilization  is  not  the  outgrowth  of  a  steady  progressive 
development  from  the  earliest  ages,  but  is  the  feeble  revival  of 
a  civilization,  ripe,  far  advanced,  brilliant,  that  was  destroyed  at 
the  beginning  of  the  Middle  Ages, — as  the  position  that  woman 
held  in  the  North.  "  In  pagandom,"  writes  August  Strindberg, 
"woman  seems  almost  to  have  been  man's  equal.  .  .  .  Woman 
was  treated  by  man  with  such  respect  and  acted  with  such  self- 
feeling  and  freedom,  that  any  such  thing  in  our  enlightened 
times  would  be  considered  unheard-of."  Ample  corroboration 
p£  this  is  found  in  whatever  author  one  turns  to.    MsUet 


OR,  Honour  to  whom  Honour  is  Due.    139 


it 
re 
)f 

it 


affirms  :  "  We  find  the  reverse  of  all  this  "  (the  general  condi- 
tion) "among  the  Northern  nations,  who  did  not  so  much  con- 
sider the  other  sex  as  made  for  their  pleasure,  as  to  be  their 
equals  and  companions,  whose  esteem,  {is  valuable  as  theii  other 
favours,  could  only  be  obtained  by  constunt  attentions,  by 
generous  .  irvices,  and  by  a  proper  exertion  of  virtue  and 
courage.  I  conceive  that  this  will  at  first  sight  be  deemed  a 
paradox,  and  that  it  will  not  be  an  easy  matter  to  reconcile  a 
manner  of  thinking  which  supposes  so  much  delicacy,  with  the 
rough,  unpolished  character  of  this  people.  Yet  I  believe  the 
observation  is  so  well  grounded  that  one  may  venture  to  assert 
that  it  is  this  same  people  who  have  contributed  to  diffuse 
through  all  Europe  that  spirit  of  equity  of  moderation  and 
generosity  shown  by  the  stronger  to  the  weaker  sex,  which  is  at 
this  day  the  distinguishing  characteristic  of  European  manners ; 
nay,  that  we  even  owe  to  them  that  spin  u  of  gallantry  which  was 
80  little  known  to  the  Greeks  and  Bomans,  how  polite  soever 
in  other  respects." 

Two  things  the  Norsemen  seemed  to  have  understood  by 
instinct — namely,  that  woman  was  naturally  man's  equal,  and 
that  the  other  life  was,  equally  in  conformity  with  nature,  a 
continuation  of  this,  under  the  same  general  conditions,  aside 
from  a  change  of  physique.  Complete  sanity,  on  these  two  fun- 
damental points,  enabled  them  to  lead  the  sensible  life  that  has 
never  been  led  since  by  any  nation  of  Europe,  and  never  will 
be,  until  some  remedy  is  found  for  Christian  hallucinations, 
which  see  in  the  other  life  unspeakable  terrors,  the  most 
monstrous  unrealities,  and  in  the  other  sex  (the  true  half  of  the 
nation  as  well  as  the  man)  a  creature  little  less  than  an  idiot 
and  imbecile.  But  again  it  may  be  asked,  how  was  this  "  spirit 
of  equity,"  the  political  freedom,  good  laws,  and  all  the  other 
beneficiul  things  in  the  Norsemen's  possession,  to  be  diffused 
through  all  Europe,  save  by  the  Viking  expeditions  that  have 
been  so  much  execrated  1    Were  the  monkish,  or  monk-ridden, 


hiiwt 


a-  r. 

,1 


n 


140    The  Icelandic  Discoverers  of  America; 


inhabitants  everywhere  so  docile,  so  eager  for  Northern  know- 
ledge and  enlightenment,  that  the  Norse  leaders,  splendid 
orators  that  they  were,  could  have  instilled  it  all  into  them 
through  public  speaking  1  Was  it  their  moral  duty  to  go  into 
the  land  of  the  enemy  as  lecturers  on  reform  topics,  aud  to  be 
slaughtered  piecemeal  by  those  fiends  who  knew  nothing  well 
but  the  action  of  fire  on  human  flesh,  or  the  use  of  the  dagger  1 
Was  it  possible  in  those  days,  and  with  such  a  population  as  the 
Church  had  reared,  to  effect  the  conquest  of  thought  and  repub- 
licanism otherwise  than  through  the  conquest  of  the  sword  ? 
And  if  this  had  not  been  effected,  what  would  the  consequences 

have  betn  to  posterity  1     ,;  .r  •  ,  ,  .  .  '  ..u    <    • 

But  whatever  brave  leaders  and  statesmen  did,  the  women  of 

the  North  were  with  them,  to  encourage  and  stimulate.     One 

;  gets  a  new  idea  of  the  sex  by  reading  about  them.     One  realizes 

■  clearly,  by  these  words  of  Holmborg's,  that  no  feeble  or  silly 

Woman  could  share  the  thoughts  of  such  men:  "  We  ought 

above  all  to  draw  attention  to  the  fact  that  there  was  with  these 

an  unquenchable  desire  for  knowledge,  a  striving  for  wisdom 

.  aud  a  respect  for  knowledge,  which   perhaps  does  not  stand 

,  forth  so  plainly  in  our  enlightened  time."     And  this  is  what  he 

;  says  about  their  treatment  of  woman  :  "  With  no  ancient  people 

.  has  respect  for  woman  been  higher,  her  true  value  more  appre- 

;  ciated,  and  her  rights  more  extended  than  with  our  forefathers. 

She  was,  it  is  true,  not  the  idol,  for  which  one  during  the  age  of 

chivalry  kindled  incense  and  brought  home  the  sacrifice  of  even 

.>  his  human  worth — a   position  which  is  always   unworthy  of 

,  woman,  as  founded  only  on  outer  charms,  aud  as  the  step  from 

idol  to  doll  is  only  a  hair's  breadth.     Still  less  was  she,  as  with 

many  other  races  of  antiquity,  man's  passive  slave,  only  existing 

.;  for  his  pleasure,  or  doomed  for  his  comfort  to  drag  forth  a  joy* 

•  less  and  arduous  life.     The  Northern  woman's  place  was  right 

between  these  two  extremes,  and  such  as  ought  to  accrue  to  lier 

M  an  important  part  of  the  communiiy.     She  was,  as  womiu 


/ 


OR,  Honour  t6  Whom  Honour  is  t)vt.    141 


•Iways  ought  to  be,  ni'in's  eqval,  neither  more  nor  leas,  and  this 
especially  when  she  became  a  wife.  Indeed  we  do  not  say  too 
much,  if  we  to  woman  in  pagan  tin.>.ii,  grant  almost  the  same 
ri<,'hts  as  those  she  now  enjoys,  with  the  only  diflTerence  that  the 
general  respect  for  her  sex  was  really  greater  than  that  paid  to 
it  in  our  time."  It  must  be  remembered  that  these  noble  words 
are  from  the  pen  of  a  modem  Swede,  one  of  a  race  who  have 
always  accorded  woman  her  due  rank.  Ha  continues :  "  Of 
such  respect,  such  freedom,  the  Northern  woman  of  antiquity 
was  well  deserving  for  her  innate  high-mindedness.  Constantly 
we  find  her  animated  by  the  same  idea  as  man,  by  that  of  free- 
dom, glory,  and  love  of  country."  =  -  -•  '*  ;  ;  >  n/i  't> 
■^  ^  Pigott  cites  the  Sagor  for  confirmation  of  the  many  points  of 
excellence  with  the  Norsemen,  this  included :  "  If  we  consult 
the  Icelandic  sagas,  many  of  which  are  faithful  and  unpretend- 
ing pictures  of  the  times  in  which  they  were  written,  we  shall 
find  that  the  Scandinavians  were  by  no  means  unacquainted 
with  the  comforts  and  even  the  luxuries  of  life ;  that  they 
were  skilful  mechanics ;  held  music  and  poetry  in  the  highest 
esteem  j  have  some  claim  to  the  invention  of  oil-painting,  and, 
above  all,  in  their  relations  with  the  weaker  sex,  showed  a 
degree  of  refinement  and  generosity  which  we  may  look  for  in 
vain  amongst  the  Greeks  and  Romans  in  their  highest  civiliza- 
tion." 

There  is  still  another  point,  not  a  reform  brought  about  by 
desperate  efforts,  through  socialism,  philanthropy,  new  financial 
theories,  or  the  like,  but  the  natural  result  of  wise  and  good 
legislation,  that  has  not  bee.,  mentioned  as  yet,  and  that  is,  the 
absence  of  poverty  in  the  North !  Mallet  speaks  of  it  as  a 
very  remarkable  feature  of  Norse  government,  and  indeed  it 
is !  He  says :  '*  That  the  leading  men  of  this  republic  (Ice- 
land) should  have  framed  a  code  of  laws,  which,  whatever  may 
be  tlieir  defects,  secured  at  least  an  ample  provision  for  the 
poorest  members  of  the  community,  and  suffered  no  one  to 


^%,'' 


'it,  ' 

«... 


•r. 


142    The  Icelandic  Discoverers  of  America; 


peiish  from  starvation,  are  facts  which  will  always  render  Ice- 
land peculiarly  interesting  to  all  who  make  human  nature — or 
the  development  of  humanity  on  earth,  in  its  multifarious  and 
ev^r-varying  aspects — the  object  of  their  special  attention." 

But  now  we  must  turn  abruptly  from  this  too  fascinating 
contemplation  of  Norse  antiquity,  and  trace  the  contrast  in 
religious  action,  during  the  Eeformation,  between  the  Northern 
nations  and  Spain.  Bishop  Percy,  in  his  preface  to  Mallet's 
work,  calls  attention  to  the  absence  of  secrecy  in  the  religious 
ceremonies  or  teachings  of  the  ancient  Scandinavians  :  **  But 
what  particularly  distinguishes  the  Celtic  institutions  from 
those  of  the  Teutonic  nations,  is  that  remarkable  air  of  secrecy 
and  mystery  with  which  the  Druids  concealed  their  doctrines 
from  the  laity;  forbidding  that  they  should  ever  be  com- 
mitted to  writing,  and,  upon  that  account,  not  having  so 
much  as  an  alphabet  of  their  own.  In  this  the  institutions  of 
Odin  and  the  Scalds  were  the  very  reverse.  No  barbarous 
people  were  so  addicted  to  writing,  as  appears  from  the  innumer- 
.  able  quantity  of  Runic  inscriptions  scattered  all  over  the 
north ;  no  barbarous  people  ever  held  letters  in  higher  reve- 
rence, ascribing  the  invention  of  them  to  their  chief  deity, 
and  attributing  to  the  letters  themselves  supernatural  virtues. 
Nor  is  there  the  least  room  to  believe  that  au}'^  of  their  doc- 
trines were  locked  up  or  concealed  from  any  part  of  the  com- 
munity. On  the  contrary,  their  mythology  is  for  ever  displayed 
in  all  the  songs  of  their  Scalds,  just  as  that  of  the  Greeks  and 
Romans  is  in  the  odes  of  Pindar  and  Horace.  There  never 
existed  any  institution  in  which  there  appears  less  of  reserve 
and  mystery  than  in  that  of  the  vScandinavian  people." 

It  is  superfluous  to  more  than  allude  to  the  systematic 
mystery  and  secrecy  of  the  Christian  Church,  its  Bible,  creed, 
ministration,  and  all  connected  with  it  ;  I  will  merely  quote 
what  Llorente  says  about  the  working  of  its  characteristic 
iustitutioii,  the  Inquisition:    "Secrecy,  the  foe  of  truth  and 


ve 

ntic 

k 

Ue 
tie 
id 


OR,  Honour  to  whom  Honour  is  Dufi.    143 

justice,  was  the  soul  of  the  tribunal  of  the  Inquisition  ;  it  gave 
to  it  new  life  and  vigour,  sustained  and  strengthened  its  arbitrary 
power,  and  so  emboldened  it,  that  it  had  the  hardihood  to 
arrest  the  highest  and  noblest  in  the  land,  and  enabled  it  to 
deceive,  by  concealing  facts,  popes,  kings,  viceroys,  and  all  in- 
vested with  authority  by  their  sovereign."  The  "'holy  ofl&ce" 
■was  in  full  operation  when  Cohimbus  went  to  Spain,  and  the 
notorious  Torqueraada  was  inquisitor-general ;  it  continued, 
under  imperial  support,  through  several  dynasties,  but  it  is  our 
purpose  now  to  consider  its  work  at  the  time  the  Reformation 
was  taking  firm  root  in  Sweden.  The  Spaniards  would  have 
been  less  than  human  if  Luther's  doutrines  had  not  crept  into 
their  minds,  too;  but  the  Pope  was  piejjared  for  this  coniingency  j 
according  to  Llorente,  "  in  1521,  the  Pope  wrote  to  the  governors 
of  the  provinces  in  Castile,  during  the  absence  of  Charles  V.,  re- 
commending them  to  prevent  the  introduction  of  the  works  of 
Luther  into  the  kingdom;  and  Cardinal  A  Irian,  in  the  same 
year,  ordered  the  inquisitors  to  seize  all  books  of  that  nature: 
this  order  was  repeated  in  1523,"  T  niperor  sliowed  him- 
self no  less  zealo\is,  for  "he  commissioiisd  the  University  of 
Louvain  to  form  a  list  of  dani,'erous  books,  an*!  in  1539  he 
obtained  a  bull  of  approbation  from  the  Poj)e.  The  index  was 
published  in  1546  by  the  University  in  all  the  states  of 
Flanders,  six  years  after  a  decree  had  been  issued  to  i)rohibit  lie 
writings  of  Luther  from  being  read  or  bought  on  pain  of  de.    li." 

Li  1529,  King  Gustaf  L  proclaimed  Lutheranism  the  State- 
religion  of  Sweden,  and  soon  after  deprived  the  bi&hcps  of 
their  name  and  dignity,  prohibited  the  invoking  of  saints,  i ' 
use  of  holy  water,  pilgrimages,  in  short  cleared  all  the  liomisli 
mummery  out  of  the  kiugdum  !  The  Popo  and  his  successors 
lost  their  power  for  ever  in  the  North  I 

From  Spain,  however,  they  extended  it  to  America,  under 
royal  protection  as  usual.  '*Tho  Spanish  possessions  in  the 
New  World,"  to  quote  Arthur  Helps,  '*  occupied  au  immense 


I 


144     'Tllfi  tCET,ANDIC  t3lSC0VEkERS  OF  AMEktCA; 


extent  of  territory,  namely  from  40°  43',  south  latitude,  to 
37**  48'  north  latitude,  the  distances  from  the  Equator,  on  each 
side,  being  nearly  the  same.  Humboldt  has  observed  that  the 
Spanish  territory  in  the  New  "World  was  not  only  equal  in 
length  to  the  whole  of  Africa,  but  was  also  of  much  greater 
width  than  the  empire  of  Russia."  Accordingly,  in  this  vast 
dominion  Spanish  rigour  was  exercised.  The  following  state- 
ments are  Llorente's  :  "  Charles  V.  and  Philip  II.  had  regu- 
lated the  circulation  of  books  in  their  American  states.  In 
1543  the  viceroys  and  other  authorities  were  commanded  to 
prevent  the  introduction  or  printing  of  tales  or  romances.  In 
1550,  a  new  decree  obliged  the  tribunal  of  the  commerce  of 
Seville,  to  register  all  the  books  destined  for  the  colonies,  to 
certify  that  they  were  not  prohibited.  In  1556,  the  Govern- 
ment commanded  that  no  work  relating  to  the  affairs  of 
America  should  be  published  without  a  permission  from  the 
Council  of  the  Indies,  and  that  those  already  printed  should 
not  be  sold  unless  they  were  examined  and  approved,  which 
obliged  all  those  who  possessed  any  to  submit  them  to  the 
council.  The  officers  of  the  customs  in  America  were  also 
obliged  to  seize  all  the  prohibited  books  which  might  be  im- 
ported, and  remit  them  to  the  archbishops  and  bishops,  who, 
in  this  case,  possessed  the  same  powers  as  the  inquisitors  of 
Spain.  Lastly,  Philip  II.,  in  1560,  decreed  new  measures, 
Rud  the  surveillance  was  afterwa  Is  as  strictly  observed  in  the 
colonies  of  the  New  "^oild  as  in  the  peninsula.  In  the  year 
1558  the  terrible  law  of  Philip  II.  was  published,  which 
decreed  the  punishm  nts  of  death  and  confiscation  for  all  those 
who  should  sell,  buy,  keep,  or  read  the  books  prohibited  by  the 
holy  office ;  and  to  insure  the  execution  of  this  sanguinary 
law,  the  index  was  printed,  that  the  people  might  not  allege 
ignorance  in  their  defence." 

Thus,  simultaneous  with  the  deliverance  of  Sweden  from  the 
power  of  Borne  and  the  consequent  infliction  of  the  Inquisi- 


OR,  Honour  to  whom  Honour  is  Due.  145 


tion  there,  too,  had  the  ruling  monarch  shown  any  weakness  or 
irresolution,  this  fatal  sway  was  extended  over  a  teriitory 
"equal  in  length  to  the  whole  of  Africa,  and  of  much  gi eater 
width  than  the  empire  of  Russia,"  in  fact,  over  all  that  was 
then  known  as  the  New  World.  Freedom  was  born  again  in 
the  North,  tyranny  forged  new  fetters  in  the  South  ! 

Yes,  Americans,  in  considering  this  most  frightful  of  all 
subjects,  must  be  brought  to  the  harrowing  conviction,  fraught 
with  the  Qoepept  humiliation,  that  the  worst  atrocities  of  the 
Spanish  Inquisition  have  been  perpetrated  on  American  soil, 
and  that  these  were  the  results  of  the  discovery  by  Columbu.«<, 
theBe  the  scenes  enacted  in  the  Spanish  colonies !  Voltaire 
has  remarked  that  "an  Asiatic,  arriving  at  Madrid  on  the  day. 
of  an  auto-da-fe^  would  doubt  whether  it  were  a  festival,  re- 
ligious celebration,  sacrifice,  or  massacre ; — it  is  all  of  them." 
The  writer  of  the  preface,  or  advertisement,  to  Llorente's  book, 
says:  "All  the  records  of  the  fantastic  cruelties  of  the 
heathen  world  do  not  afford  so  appalling  a  picture  of  human 
weakness  and  depravity  as  the  authentic  and  genuine  docunu'iits 
of  the  laws  and  proceedings  of  this  Holy  Office,  which  ]>ro- 
feased  to  act  under  the  influence  of  the  doctrines  of  the  Re- 
deemer of  the  World!"  And  the  jurisdiction  of  this  Holy 
OflB^.e  comprised  America  ! 

To  revert  again  to  the  same  authority,  Lloronte :  "In  l."70 
Philip  II.  appointe  I  an  Iiiquisition  in  Mexico,  and  in  1 57 1 
established  three  tribunals  for  all  America ;  one  at  Lima,  one 
in  Mexico,  and  the  (jther  at  CarLhagena,  assigning  to  each  the 
extent  of  territory  which  they  were  to  jiossess,  and  subjiM  ting 
them  to  the  authority  of  the  inquisitor-<iencral  and  the  SupreniH 
Council.  The  first  aato-dafc,  in  Mexico  took  place  in  1574  j 
it  was  colebnited  with  so  much  pomp  and  splendour,  that  eye- 
witnesses have  declared  that  it  could  only  be  compared  with 
that  of  Valladolid  in  1559,  at  which  Philip  II.  and  the  royal 
family  attended.    A  Frenchman   and   an    EnglisbmaA  were 


I 


146    The  Icelandic  Discoverers  of  America; 


burnt  as  impenitent  Lutherans."  In  Spain  there  were  two 
atifo8-(Ja-fe,  in  1559,  against  the  Lutherans.  At  the  second  of 
these  thirteen  persons  were  burnt ! 

Can  doubt  any  longer  remain  in  the  mind  of  any  American, 
man  or  woman,  as  to  whether  we  owe  respect  and  gratitude  to 
Spain,  or  to  the  Scandinavian  North  1  Is  it  not  entirely  due 
to  the  three  great  Swedish  kings,  Gustaf  Vasa,  Carl  IX.,  and 
Gustaf  Adolf,  that  Spain,  "the  leader  of  the  CatI  olic  re- 
action," "  the  soul  and  support  of  the  Catholic  religion,"  was 
frustrated  in  its  intention  of  bringing  the  wliole  world  under 
Catholic  dominion  1  It  had  made  repeated  attempts  to  re- 
establish Catholicism  in  Sweden,  during  the  reigns  of  Johan 
III.,  Carl  IX.,  and  during  the  Swedish-Polish  war  ;  "  it  was  to 
restore  the  Catholic  Church  that  Philip  II.  desired  to  obtain 
the  empire  of  Europe,"  declares  Buckle.  This  author  has  very 
clear  ideas  about  Spain  and  its  religious  history,  and  would 
educate  the  world  well  on  this  subject,  did  it  but  heed ;  a  few 
brief  words  of  his  sum  up  the  record  of  Philip  II. 's  work : 
*'  Directly  that  he  heard  that  the  Protestants  were  making  con- 
verts in  Spain,  he  strained  every  nerve  to  stifle  the  heresy ;  and 
so  admirably  was  he  seconded  by  the  general  temper  of  the 
people,  that  he  was  able  without  risk  to  suppress  opinions 
which  convulsed  every  other  part  of  Europe.  In  Spain,  the 
Reformation,  after  a  shsrt  struggle,  died  completely  away,  and 


m  about  ten  years  toe  last  vea 

tige  of 

It  dia 

appei 

ired." 

i  ■• 

:;v^^1 

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':'<''     - 

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.  '4 

■•,[■■' ' 

'  I'l'  '■.''' 

■   h:  t    'xiit^''*     •>   i.'f'^'iii  ji.'iHj! '  ^,-,   ■  ■',.';.■ 

,      ■:     ,  f-J 

t 

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■fj,      \v 

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■■:  ■'    '■■ 

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''     .'■'       !. 

i    :    •        / » 

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■■';l' 

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■  ;   ; ,    •' 

,','  ■■?•:■ 

:,•»•,  V 

■i-^y  ii 

i                 idi'"  -te'iviivr''''.  ••• ;    '1.0  .■  /■■• 

5'i  .,  ■ 

(■'•■' 

.M       t-l'^1 

<,iV-- 

•  !;,  'A 

*■-'''■■'  1.11  . .  1     .  , 


OR,  Honour  to  whom  Honour  is  Due.  147 


■  Klii^iiSi) 


Mfiii/  .-fei;/ /iTio'^'C i   fT'??'.|..vi'..;iii  y' 


.,>;;. .(a. 


CHAPTER  Vm. 

THB  NOBSB  DISOOVERBRS  AND   COLUMBUS   CONTRASTED. 


Christopher  Columbus,  "  the  immortal  discoverer  of  America,** 
as  D.  Gio.  Batista  Spotomo  calls  him,  and  "  that  great  man  to 
whom  we  are  indebted  for  the  New  World,"  was  the  true  son 
of  his  age  and  his  double  nationality,  Italian-Spanish.  His 
over-mastering  desire  to  discover  a  new  world  was  not  to  get 
away  himself  from  the  fetid  air  of  Spain  and  to  secure  a 
refuge,  at  a  safe  distance  from  Spain,  for  hundreds  of  thousands 
of  victims  of  religious  persecution,  but  to  gain  new  territory  fop 
the  extension  of  the  Gospel  and  that  indispensable  appendage 
of  the  faith,  the  Inquisition.  We  never  see  in  any  book 
treating  of  him,  or  that  period,  that  he  was  shocked  at  any  of 
the  public  doings  in  Spain,  or  that  he  was  filled  with  horror  at 
the  cruelties  that  were  perpetrated  there  under  his  very  eyes. 
A  man  of  a  different  mould  would  rather  have  been  burnt  at 
the  stake  than  have  been  the  means  of  carrying  this  foul  system 
across  the  ocean,  of  running  the  remotest  risk  of  transplanting 
it,  but  Columbus'  dearest  wish  was  to  become  the  humble 
instrument,  in  the  hands  of  the  Lord,  of  briuLjing  this  added 
glory  to  the  Church  and  to  his  sovereigns !  Barry,  the  Roman 
Catholic  author  referred  to  in  fornier  chnpters  of  this  book, 
lamt^nts  that  *'  prejudice,  enmity,  h(»stility  against  the  Catholic 
Cliurch,  have  the  incredible  privilege  of  t<Miching  the  Catholic 
world  the  life  of  a  man  who  is  one  of  its  most  shining  glories." 
Yes,  he  is  safe  there,  that  statement  will  nut  bo  contradicted ; 

L  2 


ul^; 


ai." 


a- 


%- 


148   The  Icelandic  Discoverers  Of  America; 


Columbus  is  indeed  one  of  the  most  shining  glories  of  the 
Catholic  world  ;  it  only  remains  to  be  seen  how  he  is  estimated 
outside  of  this  world.  "  They  cannot  bring  themselves  to  see  " 
(those  prejudiced,  hostile  biographers  he  alludes  to)  "  in  the  dis- 
covery of  the  New  World,  a  providential  intervention."  No, 
probably  not,  with  the  light  that  uncorrupted  history  is  now 
throvyring  upon  the  transaction!  "They  have  rejected  the 
superior  character  of  Columbus,"  he  adds,  "  the  man  chosen  by 
heaven." 

In  the  prospectus  of  Prof.  Rafn's  great  work,  "  Antiquitates 
Americanae,"  there  is  a  declaration  to  the  eflfect  that "  it  was  the 
knowledge  of  the  Scandinavian  voyages,  in  all  probability, 
which  prompted  the  expedition  of  Columbus."  J.  H.  Schroeder, 
a  writer  in  the  Swedish  periodical  Svea,  believed  that  news 
of  the  Norse  discovery  had  reached  Columbus'  ears  in  Italy ; 
Malte-Erun  thought  the  same,  and  a  number  of  others. 
Prescott,  in  his  "Ferdinand  and  Isabella,"  seems  very  much 
puzzled  about  all  this,  and  says  in  a  foot-note:  "  It  is  singular 
that  Columbus,  in  his  visit  to  Iceland  in  1477^  should  have 
learned  nothing  of  the  Scandinavian  voyages  to  the  northern 
fchores  of  America  in  the  tenth  and  following  centuries  ;  yet,  if 
he  was  acquainted  with  them,  it  appears  equally  surprising  that 
he  should  not  have  adduced  the  fact  in  support  of  his  own 
hypothesis  of  the  existence  of  land  in  the  west ;  and  that  he 
should  have  taken  a  route  so  different  from  that  of  his  pre- 
decessors in  the  path  of  discovery.  It  may  be,  however,  as 
M.  de  Humboldt  has  well  remarked,  that  the  information  be 
obtained  in  Iceland  was  too  vague  to  suggest  the  idea  that  the 
lands  thus  discovered  by  the  Northmen  had  any  connection 
with  the  Indies,  of  which  he  was  in  pursuit.  In  Columbus' 
day,  indeed,  so  little  was  understood  of  the  true  position  of 
these  countries,  that  Greenland  is  laid  down  on  the  maps  in  the 
European  seas,  and  as  a  peninsular  prolongation  of  Scandinavia." 

The  author  does  not  take  into  sufdcient  consideration  the 


he 


OR,  Honour  to  whom  Honour  is  Due.    149 


Roman  Catholic  talent  and  propensity  for  secrecy,  especially 
when  the  secret  is  likely  to  pay  well  There  were  a  thousand 
reasons  to  one,  to  prevent  this  astute  southerner  from  divulging 
the  knowledge  he  had  obtained  in  Icelnnd.  The  princely  terms 
he  at  last  made  with  their  majesties  of  Spain  proves  that,  what- 
ever other  lacks  there  may  have  been  in  his  character,  there 
was  noLe  of  business  shrewdness.  Besides  the  blissful  certainty 
he  concealed  so  carefully  in  his  own  breast,  helped  him  to  bear 
the  long  period  of  waiting.  He  may  have  had  some  objection 
to  the  war  with  Granada  on  this  score,  but  that  it  was  carried 
on  for  the  extermination  of  the  Moors  did  not  trouble  him. 
Keither  would  he  have  scrupled  to  take  the  funds  for  his  equip, 
ment  on  the  voyage  of  discovery,  if  he  had  known  that  they 
were  derived  directly  from  confiscated  property,  as  not  unlikely 
they  had  been,  as  they  were  fumidhed  by  Luis  de  St  Angel, 
the  receiver  of  the  ecclesiastical  revenues  in  Aragon.  Columbus 
had  his  own  ideas  of  right  and  wrong,  and  if  Queen  Isabella 
had  happened  to  complain  to  him,  as  it  is  stated  she  did  to 
others,  that  "  many  persons  accused  her  of  being  influenced  in 
all  that  she  did  for  the  tribunal  by  a  desire  to  seize  the  wealth 
of  the  condemned,"  he  would  have  found  a  way  to  console  her. 
i  Columbus,  on  the  whole,  was  very  fortunately  placed  ;  he  was 
not  one  of  those  pitiable  persons  who  are  in  advance  of  their 
age ;  he  would  have  been  safe  even  under  the  dread  eyes  of 
Torquemada;  at  a  period  when  "there  was  scarcely  a  man 
celebrated  for  his  learning,  who  had  not  been  prosecuted  as  a 
heretic,"  he  was  far  from  likely  to  reveal  a  priceless  secret  for 
the  sake  of  supporting  a  scientific  hypothesis !  No,  Columbus 
was  not  a  scientist  in  a  dangerous  sense,  else  the  inquisitor- 
general  would  have  put  a  little  obstacle  in  the  way  of  his  voyage 
of  discovery.  Neither  can  he  be  suspected  of  having  read  any 
prohibited  Lutheran  literatuie  ;  no  heresy  crops  out  in  him.  He 
may  have  beguiled  the  tedium  of  his  enforced  waiting  by 
attending  autos-da-fS,  as  any  public-spirited  citizen  naturally 


Si 


'I 


•II  ' 

?r'  ,1! 


I. 


;  -t 


ISO    The  Icelandic  Discoverers  of  America; 


wuuld,  and  he  probably  saw  his  share  of  Lutherans  burned^ 
ladies  included. 

Under  all  the  circumstances,  it  is  a  mistake  to  think  that 
Columbus  had  any  very  serious  obstacles  to  contend  with,  aside 
from  the  prevailing  stupidity  of  the  age.  To  be  sure,  Prescott 
says  that  "  it  cannot  be  denied  that  Spain  at  this  period  sur- 
passed most  of  the  nations  of  Christendom  in  religious  en- 
thusiasm, or,  to  speak  more  correctly,  in  bigotry,"  but  Columbus 
was  thoroughly  in  unison  with  this  spirit,  and  his  experience 
should  not  in  the  slightest  degree  be  confounded  with  that  of 
thinkers,  reformers,  scientists,  and  Lutherans.  He  had  Jesuits 
and  high  Church  officials  for  friends  and  counsellors,  one  of 
them  Deza  himself,  the  favour  and  patronage  of  the  Catholic 
sovereigns,  which  should  be  sufficient  to  save  him  from  ever 
being  classed  in  that  condemned  category  I    *»    ■ 

It  was  a  serious  inconvenience,  certainly,  not  to  have  a  ship 
of  his  own.  In  the  North  a  gentleman,  in  those  days,  had  his 
private  vessel,  as  gentlemen,  in  our  times,  have  their  private 
carriage,  and  could  go  where  he  liked ;  but  in  Spain,  the  in- 
quisitors, who,  in  a  way,  represented  the  Government,  could 
only  seize  and  confiscate  other  people's  vessels,  like  the  one 
owned  by  Burton,  an  Englishman,  whom  they  burnt  as  a 
Lutheran.        "  ■''  -  ■**' -^i'v/ t-:a^'-<*-;';r  i-.i»:J«A';r;;i  ji-'fj-ri/io  ■Mtoj^.i*} 

The  Norse  discoverers,  on  the  other  band,  were  not  serious- 
minded  like  Columbus,  were  not  burdened  with  scientific 
theories,  nor  a  heavy  secrei,  regarded  the  ocean  as  little  more 
than  a  babbling  brook,  and  had  more  vessels  and  crews  than 
they  knew  what  to  do  with.  Like  our  fashionable  Americans 
at  the  present  day,  the  Norse  travellers  had  been  everywhere — 
almost — and  pined  for  a  new  coast.  So  one  day  they  found 
Greenland,  and  soon  after  chanced  upon  America.  They  came 
home  and  told  the  news,  and  then  others  went.  But  I  will  let 
the  Saga  relate  this,  in  its  own  inimitable  way:  "  Bjarni,  a  very 
hopeful  man.   He  conceived,  when  yet  young,  a  desire  to  travel 


OR,  Honour  to  whom  Honour  is  Due.  151 


abroad,  and  soon  earned  for  himself  both  riches  and  respect ; 
and  he  was  every  second  winter  abroad,  every  other  at  home 
with  his  f  ither.  Soon  possessed  Bjarni  his  own  ship  ;  and  the 
last  winter  he  was  in  Norway,  Herjulf  prepared  for  a  voyage 
to  Greenland  with  Eric.  .  .  .  Bjarni  came  to  Eyrar  with  his 
ship  the  summer  of  the  same  year  in  which  liis  father  had 
sailed  away  in  spring.  These  tidings  appeared  serious  to  Bjarni, 
and  he  was  unwilling  to  unload  his  ship.  Then  his  seamen 
asked  him  what  he  would  do ;  he  answered  that  he  intended 
to  continue  his  custom,  and  pass  the  winter  with  his  father." 
In  all  this  we  see  the  cultivated,  travelled  gentleman,  fond  also 
of  home-life  and  home-ties.  In  the  rest  of  his  reply,  hov/ever, 
he  quite  transcends  any  gentleman,  or  any  mariner,  we  have 
heard  of:  "'And  I  will,' said  he,  'bear  for  Greenland,  if  ye 
will  give  me  your  company.' "  The  crew  proved  quite  as  re- 
markable as  he,  it  seemed  to  be  a  holiday-trip  for  the  whole  of 
them  ;  far  from  demurring,  they  answered,  that  "  they  would 
follow  his  counsel."  Then  said  Bjarni :  "  '  Imprudent  will  appear 
our  voyage,  since  no  one  of  us  has  been  in  the  Greenland 
ocean.'  However,  they  put  to  sea  as  soon  as  they  were  ready." 
i<  And  this  was  all  there  was  to  it.  Money,  men,  vessel,  pro- 
visions, everything  needful  they  had  ;  the  only  thing  they  did 
not  have  was  knowledge  of  the  route,  but  that  was  not  serious. 
They  made  about  as  quick  a  voyage  as  if  they  had  known  the 
way,  and  besides  their  destination  (which  had  been  discovered 
before)  it  is  thought  that  the  lands  discovered  by  Bjarni 
Herjulf  son  on  that  impromptu  trip,  gathered  from  the  details 
and  minute  description  of  the  voyages,  were  Connecticut,  Long 
Island,  Rhode  Island^  Massachusetts,  Nova  Scotia,  and  Now- 
foundland.  '  ■  <-  ■ 

V  When  poor  Columbus,  provided  with  royal  promises  and 
patronage,  large  funds,  and  all  that  his  southern  heart  could 
wish,  returned  to  Palos,  to  make  immediate  preparations  for 
his    voyage,   he  found  that   his  difficulties  had  just  begun. 


la'.'' 


Si 


1 52    The  Icelandic  Discoverers  of  America  ; 


Washington  living  did  not  mean  the  description  of  this  to  be 
ludicrous,  and  perhaps  it  would  not  be  to  one  who  had  not 
read  of  Bjarni's  stait-otf  beforehand:  "The  inhabitants  con- 
sidered the  ships  and  crows  demanded  of  them  in  the  light  of 
sacrifices  devoted  to  destruction.  The  owners  of  vessels  re- 
fused to  furnish  them  for  so  desperate  a  service,  and  the  boldest 
seamen  shrunk  from  such  a  wild  and  chimerical  cruise  into  the 
wilderness  of  the  ocean.  ,  .  .  Nothing  can  be  a  stronger  evidence 
of  the  bold  nature  of  this  undertaking,  than  the  extreme  dread 
with  which  it  was  regarded  by  a  maritime  cr  nmunity,  composed 
of  some  of  the  most  adventurous  navigators  of  the  age." 

This  was  in  1492,  and  the  Norse  party  sailed  on  their  little 
pleasure-trip  in  982.  Does  it  not  seem  as  if  retrogression,  end 
not  progress,  marked  the  stages  of  history?  As  if  the  Dar- 
winian theory  was  sadly  true — in  a  reverse  sense,  from  man  to 
apel  The  Norse  voyagers  started  off  merrily,  anticipating 
enjoyment ;  the  Spaniards  in  a  state  of  abject  terror ;  they 
evidently  stood  in  greater  dread  of  a  long  voyage  than  of  the 
Inquisition,  but,  to  be  sure,  tire  was  their  favourite  element. 
By  going  on  the  ocean,  also,  they  were  leaving  all  the  peaceful 
and  congenial  scones  of  their  native  land.  When  at  last,  after 
months  of  delay,  they  set  sail  from  Palos,  a  lot  of  sorry, 
whimpering  mourners,  they  confessed  themselves  to  Juan  Perez, 
as  a  matter  of  course,  partook  of  the  communion,  and  went 
through  a  lot  of  devout  and  affecting  ceremonials,  committing 
themselves  to  the  especial  guidance  and  protection  of  Heaven. 
It  is  well  known  that  the  men  behaved  as  badly  as  an  undis- 
ciplined and  mutinous  crew  could  behave,  all  the  way  over ; 
and  when  at  last  one  of  the  eseameft  saw  land, — not  the  grand 
seignor,  Christopher  Columbus,  who  was  not  born  to  be  in  the 
advance-guard, — the  incipient  admiral  coolly  swooped  off  the 
'  promised  reward,  and  let  the  poor  sailor  die  of  despair. 

They  landed  with  p-eat  pomp,  as  could  be  supposed.     They 
did  everything  with  pomp,  those  Spaniards,  perfcrmed  all  their 


u 


an'e 
cont 
blaz( 
free 


ricy 


OR,  Honour  to  whom  Honour  is  Due.    153 


on'e-niniteni  croinatious  with  jx/mp,  plaujhtcred  with  pomp,  and 
couhscuted  and  rubhed  with  pomp,  in  fact,  kept  up  such  a 
blaze  thiit  the  heavenly  kingdom  oould  never  have  been  quite 
free  from  the  smoke  so  continually  ascending.  Smoke  was  the 
dnily  bulletin  of  their  political  and  religious  operations. 
Columbus  clad  himself  as  behoved  his  mixed  character  of 
admiral,  viceroy,  devotee,  priest,  pro  tem.f  discoverer,  and 
crusader ;  scarlet,  the  fire-colour,  being  conspicuous  amid  his 
armour ;  and  bearing  aloft  those  symbols  that  would  make 
manifest  his  allegiance  to  the  twin  powers  of  evil,  Church  and 
Throne,  "  his  first  act,  after  prayers  and  thanksgiving,  was  to 
call  upon  all  present  to  take  the  oath  of  obedience  to  him  as 
admiral  and  viceroy^  representing  the  persons  of  the  sovereigns." 

If  the  Norsemen  had  done  anything  of  this  kind  they  would 
certainly  have  thought  that  they  had  taken  leave  of  their  senses. 
This  was  the  superior  civilization,  the  Christian  civilization, 
E,f  attained  by  Spain  five  hundred  years  afterwards  1 

Bjarni  went  back  to  Norway,  evidently  making  the  return 
trip  with  as  little  difficulty  as  the  one  to  the  new  shores,  and 
told  Erik  Jarl  about  his  voyages — the  Jarl  receiving  him  well — 
and  that  he  had  seen  unknown  lands.  But  to  resume  the 
r»cy  narrative  from  the  "Codex  Flatoiensis " :  "People 
thought  that  he  had  shown  no  curiosity^  when  he  had  nothing 
to  relate  about  those  countries,  and  this  became  somewhat  of  a 
matter  of  reproach  to  him.  .  .  .  There  was  now  much  talk 
about  voyages  of  discovery.  Leif,  the  son  of  Eric  the  Red,  of 
Brattahlid,  went  to  Bjarni  Herjulfson  and  bought  the  ship  of 
him,  and  engaged  men  for  it,  so  that  there  were  thirty-five 
men  in  all." 

He  went  to  Bjarni  Herjulfson  and  huugJit  the  ship  of  him  and 
engaged  men  for  it !  But  Columbus — Was  that  Norseman, 
Leif,  in  the  year  984  or  985,  in  such  a  savage  state  as  not  to 
know  that  the  way  to  proceed  in  such  a  vast  undertaking  as'  that 
of  crossing  the  ocean  to  unknown  lands,  was  to  present  a  petitioa 


Ii  I 


154    The  Icelandic  Discoverers  of  America; 

at  court,  seeking  first  the  mediation  of  some  high  dignitary  of 
the  Church, — he  could  have  found  a,  stray  bishop  or  two,  if  he 
had  tried,  among  the  early  converts, — to  make  extortionate  de- 
mands for  himself,  in  the  way  of  money,  commissions,  and 
perquisites,  and  appointments,  after  having  thrown  Bjarni  over- 
board in  the  first  place  1  But  this  arrogant  and  lawless  bar- 
barian had  money  enough  of  his  own,  bought  a  ship  off-hand, 
with  less  concern  than  a  Spaniard,  five  hundred  years  afterwards, 
would  have  bought  a  plaster  image  of  a  saint,  did  not  oven 
make  known  his  intentions  to  the  ruling  sovereign  nor  consult 
a  priest,  but  was  in  all  things  quite  sufficient  unto  himself.  To 
continue  the  narrative :  "  Now  prepared  they  their  ship,  and 
sailed  out  into  the  sea  when  they  wore  ready " — without  con- 
fessing themselves,  or  partaking  of  the  communion,  or  going 
through  devout  and  affecting  ceremonials,  or  committing  them- 
selves to  the  especial  guidance  and  protection  of  Heaven,  the 
godless  pagans  ! — "  and  then  found  that  land  first  which  Bjarni 
had  found  last."  They  went  ashore  and  explored.  After  that 
they  sailed  out  to  sea  and  found  another  land,  and  went  ashore 
there,  too,  touching  in  turn  Newfoundland,  Labrador,  and  Nan- 
tucket. Then  they  shaped  their  course  through  Nantucket  Bay, 
beyond  the  south-western  extremity  of  Cape  Cod ;  thence  across 
the  mouth  of  Buzzard's  Bay  to  Seaconnet  Passage,  and  up  the 
Pocasset  River  to  Mount  Hope  Bay.  "  After  this  took  they 
counsel,  and  formed  the  resolution  of  remaining  there  for  the 
winter,  and  built  three  large  houses.  .  .  .  But  when  they  had 
done  with  the  house-building,  Leif  said  to  his  comrades" — 
(comrades  ?  Columbus  had  no  comrades ;  he  took  the  oath  of 
allegiance  from  a  servile  crew  !) — '* '  Now  will  I  divide  our  men 
into  two  parts  and  have  the  land  explored.'  .  .  .  Leif  was  a 
gre..c  and  strong  man,  grave  and  well-favoured,  therewith 
sensible  and  moderate  in  all  things.  .  .  .  And  Leif  gave  the  land 
a  namo  after  its  qualities  and  called  it  Vinland."  (Hence  also 
the  modern  name  of  Martha's  Vineyard.) 


me 

wr( 

in  ( 

hov 

hea 

up 

dem 

kinc 

11 

cedu 
etrar 

ejaci 
gath 

poor 

M.  U.01J. 

out  8 

a  fev 

(( 

and 
mucl 

canst 

Now 

ftndf 

they 

voya^ 

kid  I 

fort! 

In 

• 

itj  an 

Colur 
iucid( 

:i 

chara 
vald  t 

** 

' 

::s — 


OR,  Honour  to  whom  Honour  is  Due.    155 


.  I 


'  As  one  of  their  experiences,  they  happened  to  come  to  some 
men  on  a  rock  out  at  sea ;  as  it  turned  out  they  were  the  ship- 
wrecked Icelanders,  Thorer  and  his  wife  Gudrid,  who  had  been 
in  quest  of  the  same  new  shores.  Not  knowing  who  they  were, 
however,  Leif  showed  his  customary  good  sense  and  kindness  of 
heart.  "  '  Now  let  us,*  said  Leif,  •  hold  our  wind,  so  that  we  come 
up  to  them,  if  they  should  want  our  assistance,  and  the  necessity 
demands  that  we  should  help  them  ;  and  if  they  should  not  be 
kindly  disposed,  the  power  is  in  our  hands  and  not  in  theirs.' " 

How  different  would  have  been  the  Spanish  mode  of  pro- 
cedure had  one  of  Columbus'  vessels  stumbled  upon  a  lot  of 
strange  men  on  a  rock  1  We  can  see,  in  imagination,  the  frantic 
ejaculations,  hear  the  pious  cry,  "  Holy  Virgin,  protect  us  1  '*  and 
gathering  courage  from  seeing  the  defenceless  condition  of  the 
poor  ship-wrecked  wretches,  the  Spaniards  would  probably  have 
rushed  upon  them  and  massacred  them  in  a  body,  and  found 
out  afterwards  that  they  were  countrymen  of  theirs  1  However, 
a  few  deaths,  more  or  less,  do  not  count. 

"  Now  there  was  much  talk  about  Leifs  voyage  to  Vinland, 
and  Thorvald,  his  brother,  thought  that  the  land  had  been 
much  too  little  explored.  Then  said  Leif  to  Thorvald :  *  Thou 
canst  go  with  my  ship,  brother !  if  thou  wilt,  to  Vinland/  •  ,  , 
Now  Thorvald  made  ready  for  this  voyage,  with  thirty  men, 
ftnd  took  counsel  thereon  with  Leif,  his  brother.  Then  made 
they  their  ship  ready  and  put  to  sea,  and  nothing  is  told  of  their 
voyage  until  they  came  to  Leif 's  booths  in  Vinland.  There  they 
kid  up  their  ship  and  spent  a  pleasant  winter,  and  caught  fish 
for  their  support." 

In  the  summer  they  explored  the  land,  the  western  part  of 
it,  and  the  following  summer  they  went  eastward.  Comparing 
Columbus  with  the  I.orse  voyagers,  Aaron  Goodrich  cites  an 
incident  in  Thorvald's  experience,  to  illustrate  the  different 
characteristics  of  the  two  :  "  Attacked  by  hostile  Indians,  Thor- 
vald sajrs :  *  We  shall  defend  ourselves  as  well  as  we  can,  but  not 


la ' 

i 


±}^^- 


If 


f  \>j* 


C!     ti 


I $6    The  Icelandic  Discoverers  of  America; 

use  our  weapons  much  against  them.'  Greeted  by  peaceable 
Indians,  Columbus  orders  the  ship's  gun  fired  in  the  midst,  in 
order  *  to  abate  their  pride  and  make  them  not  contemn  the 
Christians.* "  He  says  also,  as  the  narrative  has  already  told 
us,  that  "all  the  Norse  leaders,  Bjarne  Herjulfson,  Leif  and 
Thorvald  Ericson,  Karlsefne,  Bjarne  Grimolfson,  worked  fop  the 
common  good,  and  were  as  much  loved  and  respected  by  their 
followers  as  Columbus  was  hated  and  despised  by  his." 

Goodrich  also  draws  a  just  comparison  in  regard  to  the  extent 
of  exploration  of  each  party,  and  says  :  "  If  the  discovery  by 
Columbus  in  1492  of  the  islands  of  San  Salvador  and  San 
Domingo  was  the  discovery  of  the  continent  of  America,  then 
the  discovery  and  permanent  colonization  of  Iceland  and  Green- 
land, six  hundred  years  before  by  the  Scandinavians,  was  also 
the  discovery  of  that  continent ;  the  portion  of  mainland 
coasted  by  Columbus  was  avowedly  but  small,  and  he  professed 
to  be  in  Asia.  The  Northmen,  on  the  contrary,  visited  all  the 
eastern  coast  of  America,  from  the  extreme  north  to  Florida, 
formed  settlements,  and  for  centuries  carried  on  commerce  with 
the  products  of  what  are  now  the  mttst  civilized,  populous  and 
enlightened  portions  of  America  ;  and  the  American  might  well 
feel  relief  and  pride  at  the  knowledge  that  the  first  of  his  race 
to  touch  upon  his  native  shores  were  the  heroic  Norsemen — 

'  Kings  of  the  main,  their  leaders  brave, 
"        '  Their  barks  the  dragons  of  the  wave.'" 

Toulmin  Smith,  in  his  "  Discovery  of  America  by  the  North- 
men," argues  each  point,  and  seems  to  have  chosen  the  dialogue 
form  for  his  book  in  order  to  debate  every  inch  of  ground  with 
the  defenders  of  Columbus.  He  dissects  Bancroft's  entire  state- 
ment relative  to  both  in  the  most  scathing  way.  His  summing 
up  is  this  :  "  Columbus  was  not  the  discoverer  of  America  ;  he 
was  not  the  first  visitant  to  her  shores ;  his  act  was  not  so 
perilous,  or  complete,  or  adventurous  a  one  as  the  oft-repeated 


/ 


OR,  Honour  to  whom  Honour  is  Due.    157 


It  I 


acts  of  the  Northmen ;  nor  was  his  actual  knowledge  of  the 
country  in  any  degree  so  exact,  while  all  his  ideas  concerning  it 
were  purely  erroneous.  .  .  .  Shall  the  Northmen  be  deprived, 
then,  of  the  well-deserved  meed  of  honour  and  glory  which  is 
so  justly  due  to  them,  for  their  bold  and  enterprising  achieve- 
ments, for  their  often-repeated  explorations,  and  for  their  early 
but  accurate  knowledge  of  these  distant  regions  1 " 

Happy  for  Columbus  if  he  could  be  let  off  with  a  comparison 
with  the  discoverers  and  colonists,  Bjarni,  Leif,  and  Thorvald, 
but  there  is  still  another  distinguished  Norseman,  whose  bio- 
graphy and  character  belittle  the  ingloiious  Italian  fortune- 
hunter  still  more,  and  this  man  is  Thorfinn  Karlsefne.  Illus- 
trious, influential,  possessing  immense  wealth  and  a  lineage  so 
splendid  as  only  to  be  equalled  by  his  celebrated  line  of 
descendants,  Karlsefne  was  a  truly  remarkable  man,  and  him 
must  the  American  people  honour  as  their  first  worthy  colonist. 
"  Snorre,  his  son,  was  born  in  Vinland,  a.d.  1007.  From  him, 
according  to  a  genealogical  table"  (atfirms  E.  F.  Slafter) 
•'  introduced  into  *  Antiquitates  Americanse '  by  Prof.  Rafn,  aro 
lineally  descended  a  large  number  of  distinguished  Scandinavians. 
Among  them  we  note  the  following :  Snorre  Sturleson,  the 
celebrated  historian,  born  1178 ;  Bertel  Thorvaldson,  the 
eminent  sculptor,  born  1770 ;  Finn  Magnusen,  born  1781  j 
Birgin  Thorlacius,  professor  in  Copenhagen,  born  1776 ;  Grim 
Thorkelin,  professor  in  Copenhagen  and  many  others  earlier 
in  the  line."  In  a  note,  in  this  edition  of  the  Norse  voyages, 
published  by  the  Prince  Society,  it  is  stated  that  "  it  would 
appear  that  Karlsefne  himself  narrated  originally  the  events  that 
occurred  on  these  voyages,  and  that  only  the  more  important 
portions  were  written  out  by  the  saganian ;  that  it  was  not 
written  till  a  numerous  race  of  distinguished  men  had  descended 
from  Karlsefne." 

"  Thorfinn  took  to  trading  voyages,"  says  the  narrative,  "  and 
was  thou^'ht  m  able  seaman  and  merchant.  .  ,  .  Que  summer 


i 


158    The  Icelandic  Discoverers  of  America  ; 


Karlsefne  fitted  out  his  ship,  and  purposed  a  voyage  to  Vinland." 
And  now  follows  an  example  of  the  lavish  hospitality  of  the 
Norsemen,  showing  the  grand  scale  upon  which  they  exercised 
it:  "Leif,  on  his  side,  showed  them  hospitality,  and  bade  the 
crews  of  these  two  ships  home,  for  the  winter,  to  his  own  house 
at  Brattahlid.  This  the  merchants  accepted  and  thanked  hira. 
Then  were  their  goods  removed  to  Brattahlid;  there  was  no 
want  of  large  out-houses  to  keep  the  goods  in,  neither  plenty  of 
everything  that  was  required,  wherefore  they  were  well  satisfied 
in  the  winter.  But  towards  Yule  " — the  Norse  oul  which  the 
Church  appropriated  and  converted  into  the  Christian  Christ- 
mas, a  season  of  extreme  festivity  in  the  North,  devoid  of 
tedious  religious  ceremonies — "  Leif  began  to  be  silent,  and  was 
less  cheerful  than  he  used  to  be.  One  time  Karlsefne  turned 
towards  Leif  and  said  :  '  Hast  thou  any  sorrow,  Leif,  my  friend  1 
People  think  to  see  that  thou  art  less  cheerful  than  thou  wert 
wont  to  be ;  thou  hast  entertained  us  with  the  greatest  splendour, 
and  we  are  bound  to  return  it  to  thee  with  such  services  as  we 
can  command  ;  say  now,  what  troubles  thee  ? '  Leif  answered  : 
*  Ye  are  friendly  and  thankful,  and  I  have  no  fear  as  concerns 
our  intercourse,  that  ye  will  feel  the  want  of  attention  ;  but,  on 
the  other  hand,  I  fear  that  when  ye  come  elsewhere  it  will  be 
said  that  ye  have  never  passed  a  worse  Yule  than  that  which 
now  approaches.*  "  With  the  aid  of  the  resources  on  Thorfinn's 
two  vessels,  freely  offered  for  his  host's  use,  the  joyful  holidays 
could  be  duly  kept,  and  Thorer  having  died,  some  time  since, 
the  occasion  was  rendered  yet  more  festive  by  the  wedding  of 
Thorfinn  and  Gudrid,  Thorer's  widow. 

And  notwithstanding  the  extensive  explorations  that  had  been 
m&de,  "in  Brattahlid,"  says  the  narrative,  "began  people  to 
talk  much  about,  that  Vinland  the  Good  should  be  explored." 

Columbus  could  not  give  up  his  time  to  exploration,  in  the 
strict  sense  of  the  word,  for  he  was  engaged  in  gold- hunting  and 
pondering  how  to  turn  his  discovery  to  speedy  account.    The 


Is 
[s 

r 
f 


OR,  Honour  to  whom  Honour  is  Due.    159 

Noi-semon,  as  Goodrich  clearly  demonstrates,  "  were  actuated 
by  motives  far  different  from  those  of  Columbus  ;  they  did  not 
come  in  search  of  gold  or  slaves,  but  to  gather  by  industry  the 
natural  products  of  the  laTid,  carrying  on  therewith  a  flourishing 
trade  between  the  continent,  Greenland,  Iceland,  and  Norway." 
He  adds  his  testimony  also  to  the  fact  of  the  prevailing 
ignorance  in  Europe,  by  stating  that  '^  letters  and  learning 
flourished  in  Iceland  when  the  rest  of  Europe  was  intellectually 
stagnant ;  histories  and  annals  are  therefore  copious." 

The  Norsemen  manifestly  had  a  gift  for  navigating,  exploring, 
and  colonizing,  while  Columbus,  better  fitted  for  an  ecclesiastical 
calling  or  for  a  crusader,  and  with  mind  distraught  by  visions  of 
the  holy  sepulchre,  which  he  was  some  time  to  recover,  after  he 
had  found  his  gold-mine,  proceeded  laboriously  and  with  infinite 
difficulty.  What  made  the  Norsemen  such  skilful  and  daring 
navigators  it  is  superfluous  to  state,  but  as  Laing  very  wittily 
observes  :  "  Ferocity,  ignorance,  and  courage  will  not  bring  men 
across  the  ocean."  History  does  not  relate  to  us  for  our  malicious 
gratification  what  were  Columbus'  reflections,  in  Iceland,  when 
reading  of  these  Norse  voyages,  or  rather  he  did  not  commit  his 
bitter  and  envious  thoughts  to  writing,  but  the  anecdote  Laing 
repeats  about  Charlemagne  will  serve  very  well  to  indicate  what 
he  must  have  felt  at  the  bare  mention  of  their  bold  doings,  no 
doubt  recounted  to  him  with  Icelandic  enthusiasm  and  national 
pride.  This  is  the  story  of  the  French  prot^elyter  :  "  Historians 
te  us  that  when  Charlemagne,  in  the  ninth  century,  saw  some 
piratical  vessels  of  the  Northmen  cruising  at  a  distance  in  the 
Mediterranean,  to  which  they  had  for  the  first  time  found  their 
way,  that  he  turned  away  from  the  window  and  burst  into  tears. 
Was  it  the  barbarism  of  these  pirates,  or  their  civilization,  their 
comparative  superiority  in  the  art  of  navigation,  and  of  all  be- 
longing to  it  that  moved  him  1  None  of  the  countries  under  hitt 
sway,  none  of  the  Christian  populations  of  Europe  in  the  seventh, 
eighth,  or  ninth  centuries,  had  ships  ar4  men  capable  of  suoh  • 


f*.^ 


Mil 


;r 


I 


i6o    The  Icelandic  Discoverers  of  America; 


voyage.  The  comparative  state  of  shipbuilding  and  navigation, 
in  two  countries  with  sea-coasts,  is  a  better  test  of  their  com- 
parative civiliziition  and  advance  in  all  the  useful  arts  than  that 
of  thoir  church-building."      /  ■         '•    •        '  •      i 

But  this  was  the  superiority  of  contemporaries !  What  if 
Charlemagne  with  his  over-sensitive  self-love,  had  been  trans- 
ferred to  Columbus'  age  and  been  compelled  to  acknowledge, 
if  even  in  his  secret  soul,  the  superior  civilization,  and  the 
superiority  in  the  art  of  navigation  of  a  race  of  ferocious,  bar- 
barous, Christian-hating  pagans,  who  had  lived  half  a  millenary 
before  1  This  would  have  been  the  refinement  of  suflFering  to 
Columbus,  if  he  had  been  intelligent  enough  to  perceive  it ; 
but  he  was  not.  A  wise  man,  with  some  little  knowledge  of  his 
own  incapacity,  would  have  forsworn  navigation,  after  studying 
those  documents  in  Iceland ;  but  Columbus  persisted,  missed  the 
route  and  still  persisted,  and  knew  nothing  of  geography  till 
the  day  of  his  death. 

It  must  also  have  annoyed  Charlemagne  excessively  to  know 
that  democracy  was  carried  to  such  an  extent  in  the  North,  that 
every  ambitious  leader  could  have  his  own  vessel  1  Laing  calls 
attention  to  this,  with  the  rest  :  "  It  is  to  be  observed  also  that 
the  ships  of  the  Northmen  in  those  ages  did  not  belong  to  the 
king,  or  to  the  State,  but  to  private  adventurers  and  peasants, 
and  were  fitted  out  by  them."  If  Columbus  had  read  in  the 
Sagor  that  "  Bjami  possessed  his  own  ship,"  and  that  I.eif,  when 
he  made  up  his  mind  to  start  on  a  voyage  of  discovery,  "  bought 
the  ship  of  him  and  engaged  men  for  it,''  without  any  pother  or 
delay,  the  recollection  of  these  two  little  facts  couhl  not  hav© 
sweetened  his  own  fourteen  years  of  waiting  for  funds,  vessels, 
and  royal  patronage. 

It  is  no  exaggeration  for  Wheaton  to  say  of  the  men  o|  tii« 
North:  "  Their  familiarity  with  the  perils  of  the  ocean,  and  with 
the  diversified  manners  and  customs  of  foreign  Jaiuls,  stamped 
tbftir  national  cbaiucter  wuU  bold  and  orify'iaal  Icutures,  which 


OR,  Honour  to  whom  Honour  is  Due.    i6i 


distinguished  them  from  every  other  people."  But  little  did 
these  men  dream,  with  all  their  proud  ambition,  that  the  clasdo 
antiquity  they  created  in  the  North  would  yet  stand  forth, 
one  thousand  years  afienoardSi  as  the  scene  of  extinct  virtues 
and  traits,  of  acts  so  bold  and  original,  that  no  subsequent  race 
has  ever  attempted  to  repeat  them,  and  that  have  always  been 
regarded  as  little  short  of  fabulous ! 

Still,  Columbus  made  a  sufficiently  good  use  of  his  time  and 
opportunities  to  be  able  to  return  to  Spain  in  the  guise  of  a 
great  discoverer  and  magnate,  and  in  Las  Casas'  description  of 
his  reception  at  Barcelona,  we  are  told  that  "  a  modest  smile 
lighted  up  his  features,  showing  that  he  enjoyed  the  state  and 
glory  in  which  he  came."  His  situation,  for  all  that,  was 
precarious ;  he  had  excited  rather  too  much  sordid  expectation 
in  a  court  and  a  land  whose  insatiate  cry  was  ever  gold,  souls  I 
gold,  souls  !  So  one  day,  after  his  return  to  the  New  World, 
he  wrote  a  letter  to  their  majesties  in  Spain,  from  which  a 
paragraph  has  already  been  quoted  in  this  book ;  even  Irving 
disapproves  of  this  letter  and  the  suggestions  it  contains,  and 
comments  thus :  "  Among  the  many  sound  and  salutary  sugges- 
tions in  this  letter,  there  is  one  of  a  most  pernicious  tendency, 
written  in  that  mistaken  view  of  natural  rights  prevalent  at  the 
day,  but  fruitful  of  so  much  wrong  and  misery  in  the  world. 
Considering  that  the  greater  the  number  of  these  cannibal 
pagans  transferred  to  the  Catholic  soil  of  Spain,  the  greatvr 
would  be  the  number  of  souls  put  in  the  way  of  salvation,  he 
proposed  to  establish  an  exchange  of  them  as  slaves,  against 
live  stock,  to  be  furnished  by  merchants  to  the  colony.  The 
ships  to  bring  such  stock  were  to  be  landed  nowhere  but  at  the 
island  of  Isabella,  where  the  Carib  captives  would  be  ready  for 
delivery.  A  duty  was  to  be  levied  on  each  slave  for  the  benefit 
of  the  royal  revenue.  In  this  way  the  coh  ny  would  be  furcished 
with  all  kinds  of  live  stock  free  of  expense ;  the  peaceful  islands 
would  be  freed  from  warlike  and  inhuman  neighbours;  the 


^r 


i62   The  Icelandic  Discoverers  of  America; 


royal  treasury  would  be  greatly  enriched,  and  a  vast  number  of 
Bouls  would  be  snatched  from  perdition,  and  carried^  as  it  were, 
by  main  force  to  heaven." 

So  much  for  the  suggestion,  the  details  of  the  plan ;  but  it 
did  not  stop  at  that;  Irving  goes  on  to  say:  " In  his  eagerness 
to  produce  immediate  profit,  and  to  indemnify  the  sovereigns 
for  those  expenses  which  bore  hard  upon  the  royal  treasury,  he 
sent,  likewise,  about  five  hundred  Indian  prisoners,  who,  he 
suggested,  might  be  sold  as  slaves  at  Seville.  It  is  painful  to 
find  the  brilliant  renown  of  Columbus  sullied  by  so  foul  a  stain, 
and  the  glory  of  his  enterprises  degraded  by  such  flagrant 
violations  of  humanity." 

If  Irving  had  taken  the  pains  to  read  the  narratives  of  the 
Norse  voyages,  and  to  ascertain  the  merits  of  the  case,  he  would 
have  turned  his  sympathies  into  a  nobler  channel,  and  spared 
himself  the  pain  of  being  shocked  at  anything  that  Columbus 
said  or  did.  With  such  a  key  to  the  character  of  the  man  as 
that  yielded  by  the  Iceland  episode,  in  1477,  this  based  upon 
Columbus'  anticipation  of  what  he  would  obtain  at  Iceland, 
Irving  would  have  realized  that  nothing  could  sully  a  character 
so  uniformly  bad  and  unprincipled  as  the  one  he  made  the 
subject  of  his  biography.  His  wicked  work  was  continued, 
for  in  1496  Don  Bartholomew  Columbus  sent  three  hundred 
slaves  to  Spain,  from  Hispaniola;  in  course  of  time  Indian 
slavery  was  varied  with  African,  and  "in  1552,"  as  stated  in 
Arthur  Helps'  "  Spanish  Conquest  in  America,"  *'  Philip  the 
Second  concluded  a  bargain  for  the  grant  of  a  monopoly  to 
import  23,000  negroes  into  the  Indies ;  and  so  this  trafl&c  went 
on  until  the  great  asaiento  of  1713,  between  the  English  and 
the  Spanish  Governments  was  concluded,  respecting  the 
importatioii  of  negroes  into  Spanish  America.  The  number 
of  negroes  imported  into  America  from  the  year  1617, 
when  the  trade  was  first  permitted  by  Charles  V.,  to  1807,  the 
year  in  which  the  British  Parliament  passed,  the  act  abolish- 


!• 


e 


OR,  Honour  to  whom  Honour  is  Due.    163 

ing  the  slave-trade,  cannot  be  estimated  at  less  than  five  or  six 

tnillions."       .•'!*»      ?v,;i:;.f..     ;:.)';t:    '/     •'!;  '     r» ':  •■•  ''vre*  ■vvfi. 

The  present  ago,  as  little  as  the  past,  owes  gratitude  to 
Columbus;  praise  is  not  duo  to  him  for  anything  that  he  did, 
while  the  blame  is  too  heavy  to  be  dealt  adequately.  Better 
than  to  waste  valuable  time  in  contemplating  this  deeply  cul- 
pable and  bigoted  man,  would  be  to  con  ign  both  him  and  the 
i)"i!«er;iblo  country  that  fostered  his  dishonest  purposes,  to  a 
Bwift  forgetfulness.  We  have  that  with  which  we  can  profitably 
occupy  our  thoughts:  the  deeds  of  our  own  indomitable 
ancestors!  •         :      -    •  ■,  .  /     '•,-  <  n 

Daniel  Wilson,  in  his  "  Prehistoric  Man,"  before  adding  the 
weight  of  his  testimony  also  to  the  truth  of  the  Norse  discovery 
of  America,  aptly  cites  these  words  of  the  great  Niebuhr:  "  He 
who  calls  what  has  vanished  back  into  being  enjoys  a  bliss  like 
that  of  creating."  This  is  the  glad  duty  of  the  American  Republic, 
to  call  the  grand  Scandinavian  antiquity  back  into  being,  and  to 
continue  the  progress  started  so  nobly  in  the  pagan  North,  as 
if  there  had  been  no  intermission,  caused  by  the  ''anti- 
naturalists  "  of  Southern  Europe,  for  one  thousand  years  1  Let 
us  continue  where  they  left  off ;  we  shall  not  find  much  of  value 
in  the  intervening  ages ;  we  shall  only  see  Spain's  foul  autogiaph 
scrawled  on  every  fair  nation  in  Europe,  except  the  Northern 
ones,  and  on  half  the  American  continent ! 

The  paragraph  of  Daniel  Wilson's  referred  to  is  this:  "From 
the  appearance  of  the  *  Antiquitates  Americanae,'  accordingly, 
mny  be  dated  the  systematic  resolve  of  American  antiquaries 
and  historians  to  find  evidence  of  intercourse  with  the  ancient 
world  prior  to  that  recent  year  of  the  fifteenth  century  in  which 
the  ocean  revealed  its  great  secret  to  Columbus.  From  the 
literary  memorials  of  the  Norsemen,  thus  brought  to  light,  we 
glean  sufficient  evidence  to  place  beyond  doubt  not  only  the 
discovery  and  colonization  of  Greenland,  by  Eric  the  Red — 
apparently  in  the  year  985 — but  also  the  exploration  of  more 

M  2 


II  i 


L 

if 


r 


I 


i64    The  Icelandic  Discoverers  of  America; 


southern  landt^,  some  of  which,  we  can  scarcely  doubt,  must 
have  formed  part  of  the  American  continent.  Of  the  authenticity 
of  the  manuscripts  from  whence  these  narratives  are  derived 
there  is  not  the  slightest  room  for  question." 

This  chapter  would  not  be  complete  without  the  words  of 
Hubert  Howe  Bancroft  on  this  all-important  question:  "Mr. 
B.  F.  de  Costa,  in  a  carefully  studied  monograph  on  the  subject, 
assures  us  that  there  can  be  no  doubt  as  to  their  authenticity, 
and  I  am  strongly  inclined  to  agree  with  him.  It  is  true  that 
no  less  eminent  authors  than  George  Bancroft  and  Washington 
Irving  have  expressed  opinions  in  opposition  to  De  Costa's 
views,  but  it  must  be  remembered  that  neither  of  these  dis- 
tinguished gentlemen  made  a  ver'  ro found  study  of  the  Ice- 
landic Sagas,  indeed  Irving  directly  .ates  that  he  '  has  not  had 
the  means  of  tracing  this  story  to  its  original  sources ;'  nor  must 
we  forget  that  neither  the  author  of  the  '  Life  of  Columbus,' 
nor  he  of  the  *  History  of  the  Colonization  of  the  United  States,' 
could  be  expected  to  willingly  strip  the  laurels  from  the  brow 
of  his  familiar  hero,  Christopher  Columbus,  and  concede  the 
honour  of  the  *  first  discovery '  to  the  Northern  sea-kings,  whoso 
exploits  are  so  vaguely  recorded." 

It  is  the  office  of  the  American  people,  as  a  nation,  to  strip 
these  laurels  from  the  brow  of  a  man  made  great  by  a  glory 


he  stole  1 


Ok,  Honour  to  whom  Honour  is  Due.  165 


f 

n\-    1:    :  I      ..■ 


■.,1,1  i;      J  ;;. 


:i    .-■'     '.^i'  a  I 


■  .;^...  :.;>.<  I 


CHAPTER  IX. 


THB  BBNBPIOIAL  RESULTS  TO  THE   PRESENT  AQB  AND    POSTBniTT 
OP  ATTRIBUTING  THIS  MOMENTOUS    DISCOVERY  TO  THE  TRUE 
'  PERSONS. 

Had  the  vast  literature  of  Iceland  preserved  in  the  retentive 
and  faithful  memories  of  its  scalds  and  sagamen,  the  annals  of 
what  was  in  many  respects  an  ideal  civilization,  describing?  the 
life  of  a  race  mentaUy  and  physically  sound,  whose  thoughts, 
words  and  acta  were  strong  and  vigorous — had  this  literature 
existed  in  a  written  or  printed  form,  in  any  tangible  form,  at 
the  introduction  of  Christianity  in  the  North,  it  would  un- 
doubtedly have  shared  the  fate  of  the  pagan  literature  of  other 
countries.  The  destruction  of  immense  quantities  of  the  works 
of  Grecian  and  Eoman  anti-Christian  writers  signalized  the  impo- 
sition of  this  faith  in  the  Roman  empire,  and  the  destruction  of 
temples  and  images,  of  all  relics  of  the  Odin  and  Thor  worship 
in  Scandinavia,  is  a  sufficient  indication  of  the  fate  that  wouM 
have  befallen  books  and  manuscripts,  had  there  been  any  for 
the  priests  and  bishops  to  lay  hands  on.  But,  to  the  supreme 
good  fortune  of  future  generations,  this  was  preserved  where 
the  Christian  deseciators  could  not  enter,  it  was  safely  guarded 
behind  spiritual  bolts  and  bars,  in  the  faithful  and  reverent 
minds  of  the  people,  and  long  after,  not  much  before  Lhf  seven- 
teenth century,  when  the  nations  of  Europe,  after  the  first 
decisive  revolt  represented  in  the  Reformation,  had  begun  to 
lecover  from  the  asphyxia  into  which  the  unnatural  and  pre* 


li 


1 66   The  Icelandic  Discoverrrs  of  America; 


pcxsterous  doctrines  of  the  Christian  religion  had  thrown  them, 
Icelandic  history  was  made  known  to  them,  the  revelation  of  a 
system  of  ethics,  of  a  moral  cod'*,  of  political  and  social  regu- 
lations and  customs  so  unlike  those  which  Christian  Europe 
had  adopted  and  lived  after,  that  it  could  not  at  first  produce 
anything  but  astonishment  and  very  partial  understanding. 
Had  any  one  realized  then  that  this  history  of  an  enlightened 
past  threatened  the  existence  of  the  unenlightened  condition  in 
which  the  modem  world  was  sunk,  there  would  have  been  an 
effort  made  to  suppress  these  writings  as  soon  as  they  appeared. 
As  it  was,  the  public,  and  the  guardians  of  the  public  weal, 
wore  too  enervated  to  realize  the  moral  force  contained  in  the 
Sagas,  and  too  secure  in  the  belief  that  the  Christian  religion 
would  endure  for  all  time,  and  was  really  impervious  to  assault, 


:tv„>. 


*?mI7/ 


to  take  any  precautions. 
.  Although  the  reader  has  again  and  again  been  asked  to  con- 
sider the  great  value  and  importance  of  this  ancient  literature, 
there  are  still  some  opinions  in  regard  to  it  that  must  not  be 
overlooked.  Beamish,  referring  to  Iceland,  has  said:  "There 
the  unerring  memories  of  the  scalds  and  sagamen  were  the 
depositories  of  past  events,  which,  handed  down  from  age  to 
age,  in  one  unbroken  lino  of  historical  tradition,  were  committed 
to  writing  on  the  introduction  of  Christianity  (a.d.  1000),  and 
now  come  before  us  with  an  internal  evidence  of  their  truth 
which  places  them  among  the  highest  order  of  historic  records." 
In  an  address  before  the  Historical  Society  of  Rhode  Island  on 
the  visits  of  the  Northmen  to  that  state,  Alexander  Farnum 
uttered  words  that  will  have  much  weight  with  Americans: 
"  At  first  sight  it  seems  a  remarkable  circumstance  that  nine 
centuries  ago,  when  the  literature  of  continental  Europe  presents 
so  little  of  value  or  interest,  we  should  find  on  the  remote,  in- 
hospitable shores  of  Iceland  a  body  of  men  who  carefully 
studied  the  past  and  closely  observed  the  present,  and  whose 
recoUections  when  committed  to  record  on  the  introduction  of 


OR,  Honour  to  whom  Honour  is  Due.  167 


Christianity  and  the  art  of  writing  became  at  once  an  historical 
literature  such  as  hardly  any  contemporary  nation  of  Europe 
could  rival'*  William  Cullen  Bryant  says:  "These  sagas  were 
reduced  to  writing  by  diligent  and  studious  men  ;  inestimable 
treasures  laid  up  for  the  use  of  future  historians." 

But  the  noblest  tribute  of  all  is  that  from  Professor  W.  Fiske, 
called  by  Samuel  Kneeland  "the  most  learned  cultivator  of 
these  Northern  languages  in  this  country :"  "  It  (the  old  Tcelaudio 
literature)  deserves  the  careful  study  of  every  student  of  letters. 
For  the  English-speaking  races,  especially,  there  is  nowhere,  so 
near  home,  a  field  promising  to  the  scholar  so  rich  a  harvest. 
Tiio  few  translations,  or  attempted  translations,  which  are  to  be 
found  in  English,  give  merely  a  faint  idea  of  the  treasures  of 
antique  wisdom  and  sublime  poetry  which  exist  in  the  Eddie 
lays,  or  of  the  quaint  simplicity,  dramatic  action,  and  striking 
re  ilism  which  characterize  the  historical  sagas."  To  strengthen 
the  testimony  still  more,  I  cite  B.  F.  De  Costa:  "  Yet  while 
other  nations  were  without  a  literature,  the  intellect  of  Iceland 
was  in  active  exorcise,  and  works  were  produced  like  the  Eddas 
and  Heimskringla,  works,  which,  being  inspired  by  a  lofty 
genius,  will  rank  with  the  writings  of  Homer  ar.d  Herodotus." 
The  Howitts  even  assert  that  "the  Icelandic  poems  have  no 
parallel  in  all  the  treasures  of  ancient  literature;  they  are  the 
expressions  of  the  souls  of  poets  existing  in  the  primeval  and 
uneffeminated  earth.  Tiie  Edda  is  a  structure  of  that  grandeur 
and  importance,  that  it  deserves  to  be  far  better  known  to  us 
than  it  is.     The  spirit  in  it  is  sublime  and  colossal." 

In  the  sentence,  "  they  are  the  expressions  of  the  souls  of 
poets  existing  in  the  primeval  and  unejjeminated  earth,^'  the 
pith  of  the  whole  matter  is  reached.  The  sagas,  whether 
poetical  or  prose,  do  indeed  relate  of  a  life  diametrically  opposite 
from  that  of  which  we  are  now  cognisant ;  of  an  earth  which 
some  cause  has  essentially  changed.  These  poets,  and  all  who 
formed  the  chief  characters  in  the  Northern  epics,  had  a  different 


Sr 


:t  It, 


im 


•*\ 


i68    The  Icelandic  Discoverers  of  America; 


ideal  from  that  of  the  rest  of  Europe ;  their  standard  was  not 
the  idealization  of  suffering,  but  the  conquest  of  suffering,  that 
is,  of  all  the  weakness,  sickliness,  depravity,  moral  feebleness 
and  evil  of  all  kinds  that  produce  it ;  all  this  the  pagans  of  the 
North  crashed  out  as  pertinaciously  as  it  was  engendered  by 
the  Christian  communities  in  which  suffering  was  the  only  ideal. 
The  Norsemen  believed  that  human  nature  was  good,  capable 
of  whatever  the  individual  in  his  highest  pride  might  will ;  the 
Eomanists  believed  that  human  nature  was  evil,  and  that  the 
will  was  the  worst  snare  ;  to  one  class  the  earth  was  a  perfectly 
satisfactory  field  of  activity,  which  could  be  rendered  all  that 
man  could  wish,  to  the  other  a  den  of  misery,  hopeless  from  the 
beginning. 

The  value  of  this  literature,  this  history  of  the  North,  which 
from  all  accounts  seems  to  be  the  only  reliable  history  we  have, 
is  that  it  describes,  with  that  graphic  force  yielded  by  truth 
alone,  a  state  of  society  founded  on  natural  principles.  At  this 
late  hour  the  people  of  the  nineteenth  century  are  beginning  to 
yield  some  slight  reverence  to  nature,  and  depute  science  to  tell 
them  what  nature  is.  What  little  has  b^en  learned  regarding 
the  physical  laws  has  scarcely  extended  as  yet  to  the  domain  of 
moral  and  spiritual  laws  ;  an  entrance  has  been  forced  to  the 
one,  but  the  Church,  as  of  old,  forbids  access  to  the  other. 
The  race  moulded  and  fashioned  by  the  Bible,  who  are  aching 
in  every  limb  fr'">m  the  cramp  it  has  caused,  have  the  inesti- 
mable privilege  of  reading  of  a  race  who  had  no  Bible  to  warp 
them  out  of  all  human  shape,  and  who  were  as  they  were 
created  to  be.  The  conclusion  is  unavoidable  that  the  people 
of  the  North  were  so  totally  unlike  any  other  nation  because 
they  were  wholly  untinctured  with  Christianity ;  thence  their 
strength  of  character,  their  intrepidity,  thtur  marked  indi- 
viduality, tbo  large  results  consequent  upon  their  every  act. 
Mr,  Bryant  remarks,  half  humorously:  "The  Northmen  had 
a  genius  for  discovering  new  countries  by  accident,"  and  they 


OR.  Honour  to  whom  Honour  is  Due.    169 


really  did  accomplish  more,  even  in  other  directions,  by  mere 
chance,  than  others  accomplished  by  the  most  painful  efforts, 
proving  Emerson's  words  that  "it  is  as  easy  for  the  strong  n)iin 
to  be  strong,  as  for  the  weak  to  be  weak."  The  nature  that 
they  had  never  defied  or  insulted  was  their  constant  ally. 

But  the  two  elements  could  not  live  conjoined  in  Europe  ; 
one  or  the  other  had  to  go  uncler.  Christianity,  the  prostitu- 
tion of  nature,  won  the  victory  over  the  natural  life,  and  the 
North,  too,  finally  accepted  the  teachings  that  pronounce  man 
vile.  From  that  hour  the  darkness  settled  swiftly  over  all 
Europe  and  the  Middle  Ages  chronicled  the  complete  sv.ay  of 
the  Church.  The  Scandinavian  nations  had  at  la&D  been  re- 
deemed from  barbarism.  To  this  triumph  of  the  Church  we 
are  told  that  we  are  to  ascribe  the  blessings  of  modem  civiliza- 
tion ;  indeed  this  is  the  prevailing  theory.  It  is  this  crazy 
theory  which  the  Icelandic  history,  treasured  up  for  this  }»re- 
sent  age,  is  to  dispel,  its  province  being  to  rectify  an  error  in 
which  the  European  race  have  lived  for  eighteen  hundred  years 
and  to  which  they  still  stubbornly  cling.  The  extinction  of 
Northern  paganism,  so-called,  but  more  properly  of  Nortliern 
irreligion,  ought  to  have  demonstrated  clearly  that  under  the 
shadow  of  Christianity  nothing  else  could  live;  it  athliates 
with  nothing  else,  and  never  can. 

Felix  Oswald  shows  very  forcibly  this  lack  of  homogeneity 
between  Christianity  and  that  which  is  alleged  to  be  insejiar- 
able  from  it :  "  But  in  examining  the  claims  of  these  theorists," 
he  says,  "the  impartial  inquirer  cannot  overlook  the  following 
objections:  1.  That  the  rise  of  tlie  Cliristian  faith  coincides 
with  the  sunset  of  the  great  South-European  civilization ; 
2.  That  the  zenith  of  its  power  coincides  with  the  midnight  of 
mediaival  barbarism ;  3.  That  the  decline  of  its  influence 
coincides  with  the  sunrise  of  a  North-European  civilization  j 
4.  That  all  the  principal  victories  of  Freedom  and  Science 
have  been  achieved  in  spite  of  the  Church,  in  spite  of  her  utmoat 


170    The  Icelandic  Discoverers  of  America; 


efforts  to  thwart  or  diminish  their  triumph,  that  only  in  conse- 
jjuence  of  the  futility  of  these  efforts  the  heresies  of  one  age  have 
become  the  truisms  of  the  next,  so  that  Christianity  has  always 
marched  in  the  rear  of  civilization ;  5.  That  the  exponents  of  the 
Christian  dogmas  persist  in  their  hostility  to  the  progress  of  a 
reform  which  they  recognize  only  by  condescending  to  share 
the  fruits  of  its  former  victories  ;  6.  That  the  worst  enemies  of 
political  and  intellectual  liberty  were  firm  believers  in  the 
dogmas  of  the  Now  Testament,  while  the  direct  or  indirect  re- 
pudiation of  those  dogmas  has  been  the  fundamental  tenet  of 
nearly  every  great  thinker,  scholar  or  statesmen,  till  the  degree 
of  Protestantism  has  become  the  chief  test  of  intellectual 
sanity;  7.  That  among  the  contemporary  nations  of  the  Chris- 
tian world,  the  most  sceptical  are  the  most  civilized,  while  the 
most  orthodox  are  the  most  backward  in  freedom,  industry 
and  general  intelligence." 

These  are  objections  which  Christian  believers  do  not 
attempt  to  explain  away ;  their  only  strength  lies  in  ignoring 
facts  and  in  maintaining  their  assertions  in  the  face  of  truth. 
If  we  look  back  across  the  black  chasm  of  the  Middle  Ages, 
we  see  an  uncontaminated  soil,  up  there  in  the  North,  on  which 
were  no  prisons,  brothels,  houses  of  correction,  churches, 
charitable  institutions  or  court-hoases ;  and  in  Iceland,  where 
the  brightness  concentrated,  a  state  of  society  in  which  free- 
dom, happiness  and  prosperity  were  not  postponed  till  the 
millennium.  How  was  it  possible  for  Iceland  to  preserve  the 
proudest  national  position  on  record  for  four  hundred  years,  to 
beuomo  the  model  of  a  republic,  and  almost  the  sole  intellec- 
tual repository  in  Europe  1  How  was  it  possible  for  this  remote 
and  desolate  island  to  conserve  so  much  moral  force,  so  much  of 
the  essence  of  its  own  transcendent  power  and  genius,  as  to 
revive  the  flagging  energies  of  the  modern  world  and  reveal  to 
it  the  long  road  of  its  stupid  and  imbecile  retrogression,  every 
step  of  which  muHt  be  retraced,  until  the  stragglers  get  back  to 


OR,  Honour  to  whom  Honour  is  Due.    171 


first  principles?  And  why  cannot  the  American  Republic, 
with  its  brilliant  opportunities,  reach  the  same  moral  and  in- 
tellectual height  that  the  Republic  of  Iceland  attained  one 
thousand  years  ago  1  The  fault  does  not  lie  with  Americans, 
with  their  Government  or  their  Constitution,  but  in  the  in- 
sidious evil  wrought  by  the  Christian  emissaries  in  their  midst. 
If  they  had  made  th*;  whole  structure  of  S'xdety  secular,  as 
well  as  their  Consti'^ution,  reduced  Sunday  to  the  level  of 
other  days,  the  Bible  to  the  level  of  other  books,  churches  and 
cathedrals  to  the  level  of  other  buildings,  xmconsecrated,  and 
allowed  to  be  used  only  for  useful  purposes,  priests  and  clergy- 
men to  the  level  of  other  men,  nay,  below  that,  to  the  level  of 
idlers  and  beneficiaries,  who,  pursuing  no  useful  calling,  live  on 
the  community  and  impoverish  it,  the  nation  would  have  made 
enormous  progrosb,  and  history  could  again  have  recorded  the 
almost  fabulous  deeds  of  indomitable  and  grandly  ambitious 
men  !  As  it  is,  all  the  vices  and  abominations  of  Europe  have 
Ix^en  transplanted  there ;  in  American  cities  are  to  be  seen  the 
pomp  and  mummery  of  cathedral  service,  the  squalor  of  the 
worst  poverty,  the  brazen  infamy  of  the  lowest  crime  and  de- 
pravity, just  as  in  Europe.  Is  it  because  the  Constitution 
of  the  United  States  has  germinated  the  same  evils  as  Russian, 
or  Spanish,  or  Gern:an,  or  English  monarchy?  Is  it  because 
"  human  nature  is  the  same,  all  over  the  world,"  as  those  wh<' 
despise  it  are  fond  of  saying  1  Or  is  it  because  the  Church 
germinates  the  same  evils  everywhere,  under  a  republic  or 
under  a  monarchy,  becausi;  the  Church  produces  a  certain  species 
of  huiiuui  nature,  whirh  chokes  out  all  others,  and  thus  gives  a 
certain  show  of  truth  to  the  trite  saying  that  human  nature  is 
the  same,  all  over  the  world,  for  the  poophi  of  the  United 
States  have  given  the  Christian  idolaters  full  freedom  to  carry 
on  their  work.  The  Christian  nature  is  undoubtedly  the  same 
all  over  the  world :  hypocritical,  canting,  secretive,  avaricious, 
deeply  designing  and  Machiavellian  ;  each  leader  makes  a  tool 


J 172    The  Icelandic  Discoverers  of  America; 


,  and  dupe  of  his  followers ;  congregations  do  their  priest's  or 
••  minister's  bidding,  and  the  whole  society  is  permeated  with  their 
•  spirit  and  purpose.     "We  do  not    know  what  human   nature 
,  is ;  we  have  not  seen  it  j  we  have  only  seen  the  regeneration 
;  effected  by  the  Church.     We  can  read  about  it,  however,  in 
.  the  old  Norse  sagas,  and  in  some  blessed  hour  this  will  rouse 
the  desire  in  all  who  read  to  become  human  and  natural  again, 
to  shake  off  this  palsying  superstition  that  has  benumbed  heart 
and  mind  for  so  many  ages.     Listening  to  the  twaddle  of  the 
priests  and  Bible  interpreters,  we  had  almost  forgotten  that  we 
possessed  any  capabilities   akin  to  those  of  the  Icelandic  re- 
publicans of  the  olden  time. 

When  will  it  become  possible  for  Americans  to  do  away  with 
church-taxation,  with  religious  holidays  and  fasts,  with  penal 
servitude,  with  poverty,  with  prostitution,  with  unhappy 
marriages,  with  the  life-long  misery  of  nine-tenths  of  those 
born  to  the  earth  1  Hospitality,  but  one  of  the  many  virtues  of 
the  Norsemen,  in  and  of  itself  did  much  to  prevent  poverty 
and  at  all  events  prevented  any  one  from  dying  of  starvation. 
But  hospitality,  in  the  broad  sense  understood  by  the  Norse- 
men, is  despised  by  their  English  and  American  descendants, 
in  fact  by  all  civilized  nations.  In  speaking  of  the  hospitality 
everywhere  shown  by  the  natives  of  the  islands  he  visited  to 
X-oiurabus,  Irving  observes :  "The  untutored  savage,  in  almost 
every  part  of  the  world,  scorns  to  make  a  traffic  of  hospitality." 
This  traffic,  together  with  the  slave-traffic,  the  woman- 
traffic,  the  soul-traffic,  was  introduced  by  Christianity ;  every- 
thing must  be  bought  and  paid  for,  from  bread  to  absolution. 
Human  beings  had  no  rights  ;  whatever  blessings  tliey  enjoyed 
were  by  grace ;  food  and  shelter  wore  costly  luxuries,  to  be 
earned,  never  to  be  given.  If  a  little  hungry  boy  steals  a 
loaf  of  bread,  Christian  England  sends  him  to  gaol  and  con- 
demns him  to  a  month  of  hard  labour.  Famishing  adults,  in 
Jwurope   or    America,  can   only  get  food   on   credit  if  their 


01^,  ttONOttR  TO  WHOM  ttONOWR  IS  DtiE.     1^3 


promise  to  pay  is  good.  In  Iceland,  even  at  the  present  day, 
there  is  said  to  be  only  one  prison,  a  good,  strong  one,  but 
with  no  one  in  it.  There  are  no  inns,  and  hospitality  is  the 
custom.  But  the  other  nations  allow  the  Icelanders  to  starve, 
in  case  of  famine. 

Samuel  Kneeland,  in  his  exceedingly  interesting  ^look,  "  An 
American  in  Iceland,"  describing  the  visit  of  ;.  party  of 
Americans  to  this  famous  island  at  the  time  of  the  Millennial 
celebration,  says  that  there  is  a  remarkable  revival  of  the  old 
Icelandic  literar^  spirit  in  the  present  century,  as  exhibited  by 
their  poets,  historians,  linguists  and  journalists.  *'  The  present 
mental  cultivation  of  the  people,"  he  affirms,  "  is  very  high. 
.  .  .  The  common  people  are  well  acquainted  with  their  own 
and  other  national  histories,  ancient  and  modern ;  they  know 
all  about  the  early  discovery  of  America  by  the  Northmen, 
five  centuries  before  Columbus,  while  very  few  of  us,  until 
recently,  knew  any  more  of  Iceland  than  we  did  of  the  South 
Pole,  or  the  wilds  of  Africa." 

After  bestowing  many  encomiums  upon  these  proud,  in- 
dependent people,  who  he  declares  are  "born  republicans," 
he  says  :  *'  And  now  I  trust  that  the  reader  will  admit  that 
Iceland  was  justified  in  proclaiming  to  thu  nations  the  celebra- 
tion of  her  one  thousandth  anniversary  ;  that  she  deserves  the 
admiration  of  the  civilized  world  for  what  she  has  done  for 
liberty,  the  advance  of  knowledge,  and  the  preservation  of 
historic  records,  at  a  time  when  the  rest  of  Europe  was  in 
dft^Vness ;  and  especially  that  she  has  proved  that  man  is 
superior  to  his  surroundings,  and  that  hardship,  oppression  and 
poverty  can  neither  stifle  the  aspirations  for  liberty,  nor  degrade 
a  poetic  and  heroic  race." 

**  Hardship,  oppression  and  poverty  "  have  been  the  more 
modern  experience  of  Iceland,  coming  with  the  Christian  dis- 
pensation. It  was  not  poor  emigrants  tliat  first  sought  her 
shores,  nor  those  belonging  to  the  common  people.     A  bleak 


la  ■ 

;i.t 


it 


174    The  Icelandic  Discoverers  of  America; 


an.l  sterile  land  could  never  induce  what  Christianity  and  sub- 
jection to  the  throne  of  Norway  induced  almost  immediately. 
In  Pigott's  mention  of  this  fact  that  in  1262  Iceland  was 
united  to  the  crown  of  Norway,  the  pregnant  sentence  follows, 
already  quoted  :  "  But  all  intei-est  hi  public  affairs  thence- 
forth died  away,  and  no  Sagas  were  written,  because  there  was 
nothing  to  write  about."  This  was  the  case  all  over  Europe ; 
there  was  really  nothing  to  write  about  until  the  "  revival  of 
letters  "  in  the  seventeenth  centary.  "  In  Europe  generally,"  as 
Buckle  states, "  the  seventeenth  century  was  distinguished  by  the 
rise  of  a  secular  literature  in  which  ecclesiastical  theories  were 
disregarded."  By  a  ludicrous  coincidence,  remarked  upon  by 
several  Swedish  authors,  St.  Birgitta  was  the  first  ptrson  to  make 
Sweden  known,  in  modern  times,  and  Gfustaf  Vasa,  the  second. 
The  worthy  woman  mercifully  freed  Sweden  from  her  presence 
and  went  to  Rome,  to  seek  a  broader  field  of  activity ;  while 
Gustaf  Yasa  obliterated  her  work,  in  Vadstena,  and  in  Sweden 
generally,  and  cleared  the  land  thenceforth  of  all  saints.  But 
previous  to  this,  all  three  of  the  Scandinavian  nations,  as  well 
as  Iceland,  had  sunk  into  a  decline ;  there  had  been  five 
hundred  years  of  Roman  delirium ;  pageants,  pilgrimages, 
baptismal  rites,  miracles,  saint- worship,  throughout  the  North, 
but  in  a  somewhat  modified  form  :  religious  zeal  and  fanaticism 
could  never  run  quite  to  the  same  excess  there  as  in  Southern 
Europe,  but  yet  Gustaf  Vasa  rose  in  opposition  none  too  soon. 
As  it  was,  silly,  superstitious  legends  superseded  the  Sagas,  and 
slinking,  black-gowned  monks  trod  Norse  soil.  The  splendid 
realities  which  only  began  to  pale  toward  the  year  1000,  had 
become  fabulous  things  of  the  past,  bearing  so  little  resem- 
blance to  existing  conditions,  that  they  were  even  more  dis- 
credited then  than  now.  Only  in  thid  present  decade  is  there 
sufficient  understanding,  in  a  few  chosen  minds,  to  appreciate 
properly  the  ancient  life  of  the  North,  and  sulBficient  courage  to 
dare  to  state  to  the  world  the  cause  of  the  long  blight  and 


tl 
sa' 


OR,  Honour  to  whom  Honour  is  Due.    175 


the  remedy  provided  in  the  knowledge  Iceland  so  generously 
yields. 

Were  it  not  for  the  recuperative  power  of  nature,  always 
savouring  of  the  miraculous,  there  would  bo  little  hope  of  the 
recovery  of  the  human  race  from  eighteen  hundred  years  of 
Christianity.  As  Dr.  Oswald  says,  and  his  words  cannot  be  too 
often  repeated :  *'  The  night  of  the  Middle  Ages  was  not  the 
natural  blindness  of  unenlightened  barbarians,  but  an  unnatural 
darkness,  maintained  by  an  elaborate  system  of  spiritual  des- 
potism, and  in  spite  of  the  fierce  struggles  of  many  light-loving 
nations."  To  this  is  due  our  mixed  ideas  of  right  and  wrong, 
our  confusion  when  we  are  forced  to  any  moral  step,  our  de- 
pendence on.  authorities,  our  vacillation,  our  utter  lack  of  self- 
reliance.  Pride  is  not  in  a  man's  own  conscious  sense  of  worth, 
of  honour,  of  bravery,  but  in  externals  ;  money  is  his  glory  and 
defence.  He  cannot  trust  himself,  nor,  from  his  knowledge  of 
himself,  is  he  inclined  to  trust  or  love  others.  What  reason  has 
he  to  suppose  them  any  better  than  himself  1  Policy  rules  him, 
why  should  it  not  rule  them  1  He  bus  his  master,  and  he  knows 
it ;  the  Church  owns  him  ;  with  the  little  remaining  intelli- 
gence he  possesses  he  knows  that  the  Church  owns  all,  except 
the  unbelievers,  and  these  are  dangerous  company.  Even  if 
the  truth  is  with  these  persons,  which  he  is  not  quite  clear- 
headed enough  to  decide — and  after  all  is  there  any  such  thing 
as  truth  1 — he  is  not  willing  to  relinquish  the  benefits  the  Church 
doles  out  to  him  fw  the  ^ake  of  any  fanatical  notions  of 
follovnng  one's  convictions 

Mai:  Nordau.  m  ids  '*  C  >nventional  Modern  Lie*,''  describes 
this  mental  state  w«ll :  **Iiie  coodict  betwoen  the  new  view  of 
life  and  the  old  institutioiw  rages  in  tbn  soul  of  ev  ry  cultured 
person,  and  each  ami  all  long  to  fit*  fr  ;n  Un--  innei  tumult.  It 
1*  now  believed  in  many  ..uarter-.  tha  there  are  two  methods 
of  regaining  tht^  lost  soul's-peace  and  Ui^t  oue  has  a  free  choice 
between  avaiiing  oxw's  aaU  of  4B«  or  tfaiB  olkab    lUsoiute  retro* 


.^fi 


tyS   The  Icelandic  Discoverers  of  America 


gression  one  is  called,  resolute  advance  the  other.  Either  one 
gives  the  forms  that  have  lost  their  substance  this  substance 
back  again,  or  one  tears  them  down  completely  and  gets  them 
out  of  the  way."  He  elaborates  this  idea  very  skilfully,  de- 
monstrating that  there  is  really  no  middle  course  :  one  must 
either  revive  niedisevalism,  or  sweep  all  mediaeval  institutions 
from  the  earth.  "  These  are  the  two  methods,"  he  concludes, 
"  and  the  adherents  of  the  first  combat  those  of  the  other,  and 
their  desperate  conflicts  constitute  the  only  contents  of  the 
political  and  mental  life  of  the  age."  There  is  even  more  under 
this  conflict  than  he  indicates  :  it  is  the  unceasing  eflbrt  of  the 
Romish  Church,  even  through  the  channels  of  Protestantism,  to 
regain  its  lost  dominion,  to  bring  back  the  Middle  Ages  upon 
the  earth.  Whatever  the  dissatisfaction  of  the  victims  during 
those  deplorable  ages,  the  Church  had  no  complaint  to  make, 
and  paganism,  the  Reformation,  science,  rationalism,  republi- 
canism, are  all  forms  of  one  and  the  same  apostasy,  which  it 
is  the  business  of  the  Church  to  stop,  once  and  for  ever.  It 
is  plain  that  this  apostasy  has  reached  its  worst  stage  in  America, 
and  that  in  the  United  States,  which,  in  the  framing  of  their 
Constitution,  have  given  such  a  mortal  afiront  to  the  Church, 
the  battle  must  be  fought  out.  It  is  not  to  be  supposed  for  an 
instant  that  Americans  will  repudiate  science,  rationalism,  and 
republicanism  ;  they  are  already  more  liberal  than  they  know  ; 
the  only  mistake  has  been  that  they  have  not  yet  realized  the 
discrepancy  between  loyalty  to  the  Constitution  and  loyalty  to 
the  Christian  religion,  and  that  only  a  monarchist  of  Europe, 
devoted  to  all  the  old  institutions,  can  be  a  true  Christian. 
The  hour  is  approaching  that  will  reveal  to  Americans  tJje  un- 
tenable position  they  have  attempted  to  hold,  and  the  immediate 
occasion  for  discussion  upon  the  subject  is  the  question  of  the 
relative  claims  of  Columbus  and  the  Norse  discoverers  to 
American  recognition. 

The  decision  of  the  people  of  this  Republic  will  thus  turn 


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OR,  Honour  to  whom  Honour  is  Due.    177 


the  scale,  one  way  or  the  other.  The  recognition  of  Columbus' 
claims,  and  homage  paid  to  him  as  the  discoverer,  signifies  ap- 
proval of  the  Christian  motives  and  policy  since  their  incipiency  ; 
it  is  to  accept  as  genuine  garbled  and  mutilated  history,  to 
exalt  a  pretender  to  the  highest  h(mour.  The  recognition  of  the 
claims  of  the  Norse  discoverers  is  to  show  forcibly  and  conclu- 
sively that  national  integrity,  at  this  present  day,  consists  in 
paying  the  highest  respect  to  historical  truth,  and  in  honouring 
those  who  have  transmitted  it  to  posterity,  pure  and  complete  ; 
it  consists  in  attributing  the  greatest  blessings  enjoj'ed  by 
civilized  nations,  liberty,  general  intelligence,  personal  rights, 
just  and  equitable  laws,  to  the  true  sources  of  these.  To  follow 
the  bidding  of  the  Church  and  celebrate  Columbas'  deed  were 
to  commit  a  ridiculous  and  irretrievable  blunder,  while  to  cele- 
brate the  Norse  achievement  would  retrieve  at  a  single  stroke  all 
the  blunders  of  the  past  and  inaugurate  a  new  era. 

However  firmly  the  foundations  of  the  Church  are  laid  upon 
a  future  life,  all  its  creeds  and  dogmas  being  based  on  salvation 
or  the  reverse,  its  doctrine  and  theory  one  of  postponement, — 
the  action  of  the  Church  has  ever  been  materialistic,  lent  on  im- 
mediate results  of  the  most  tangible  and  advantage  ous  kind  ;  in 
other  words,  the  benefits  to  be  derived  from  the  Christian 
religion  were,  to  the  votaries,  relinquishment  of  actual  adv m- 
tages  for  long-deferred  ones ;  to  Church  dignitaries  and  officials, 
the  appropriatitm  of  present  advantages  witliout  reference  to 
the  future  heaven.  The  poor  devotees  and  zealots  needed 
heaven ;  or  were  made  to  believe  that  they  did ;  the  Church 
needed  landed  estates,  money,  temporal  power,  followers,  sub- 
jugated nations,  and  to  secure  these  has  been  its  only  object. 
Preaching  heaven,  it  prized  earth  !  But  for  the  idea  of  heaven, 
it  could  not  have  spoliated  and  plundered  all  the  {)eople  of  the 
earth.  This  has  been  the  practical  use  of  Bible,  creed,  and 
Christ  I  If  this  has  been  the  ecclesiastical  policy  all  through 
the  Middle  Ages,  it  is  equally  the  policy  pursued  still  in  Europe 


178    The  Icelandic  Discoverers  of  America; 


and  the  United  States,  and  will  be  until  religious  brigandage 
is  suppressed  by  the  law  of  nations. 

As  far  as  the  Scandinavian  North  was  concerned,  the  Romish 
purpose  is  again  indicated  in  the  following  paragraph  from 
Fryxell's  ''Narratives  from  Swedish  History:"  "At  this 
period  Swedish,  Norwegian,  and  Danish  Vikings  swarmed 
throughout  the  whole  of  Southern  Europe,  and  caused  universal 
dismay  by  their  plundering  and  marauding.  It  was  therefore 
determined  at  several  Church  Councils  to  attempt  the  conver- 
sion of  these  heathen  people  to  Chiistianity,  and  by  softening 
their  manners  and  feelings,  put  an  end  to  their  murder  and 
bloodshed."  Thus  conveision,  forced  conversion  of  these  people, 
was  purely  a  prudential  measure  on  the  part  of  the  Church ; 
the  only  way,  moreover,  in  which  the  plundered  property  could 
be  made  to  change  hands.  As  for  "  softening  their  manners 
and  feelings,  and  putting  an  end  to  their  murder  and  blood- 
shed," we  can  take  the  two  Christianized  kings,  Olof  Trygg- 
vason  and  Olof  the  Saint,  not  to  speak  of  the  Swedish  king, 
Olof  Skotkonung,  and  their  Christianizing  processes,  as  shining 
examples  of  this !  Olof  Tryggva^on  declared  that  "  he  would 
either  bring  it  to  this,  that  all  Norway  should  be  Christiai.  or 
die."  It  is  said  of  him  that  "  he  was  distinguished  for  cruelty 
when  he  was  enraged,  and  tortured  many  of  his  enemies  " — of 
course  all  pagans  were  his  enemies  ; — "  some  he  burnt  in  fire  ; 
some  he  had  torn  in  pieces  by  mad  dogs  ;  some  he  had  muti- 
lated, or  cast  down  from  high  precipices."  Olof  the  Saint  pro- 
pagated "the  doctrine  of  mildness  and  peace,"  in  the  same 
way  :  "He  also  made  the  laws  to  be  read  there  as  elsewhere, 
by  which  the  people  are  commanded  to  observe  Christianity ; 
and  he  threatened  every  man  with  loss  of  life,  and  limbs,  and 
property,  who  would  not  subject  himself  to  Christian  law.  He 
inflicted  severe  punishments  on  many  men,  great  as  well  as 
small,  and  left  no  district  until  the  people  had  consented  to 
adopt  the  holy  i'aith." 


OR,  Honour  to  whom  Honour  is  Due.    179 


Prescott  remarks  that  *'  many  a  bloody  page  of  history  attests 
tlie  fact,  that  fanaticism,  armed  with  power,  is  the  sorest  ovil 
which  can  beftdl  a  nation."  If  we  substitute  Christianity  for 
fanaticism,  the  words  will  have  precisely  the  same  force,  and, 
indeed,  the  proselyting  work  thn/Uj?hout  has  been  much  more 
characterized  by  cold-blooded  calculation  than  by  burning  zeal. 
The  same  author  also  says  :  "  Acts  of  intolerance  are  to  be  dis- 
cerned from  the  earliest  period  in  which  Christianity  became 
the  established  religion  of  the  Eoman  Empire."  Lloix  nte,  in 
tracing  the  origin  of  the  Inquisition,  leads  direr  ily  to  the  fact 
that  cruelty,  torture,  and  murder  were  th<i  earliest  means  used 
for  the  subduing  of  heretics  or  heathen  :  *'  This  first  step,  which 
the  popes  and  bishops  had  taken  contrary  to  the  do(*trine  of  St. 
Paul,  was  the  principle  and  origin  of  the  Inquisition  ;  for  when 
the  custom  of  punishing  a  heretic  by  corporeal  pain,  although 
he  was  a  good  subject,  was  once  established,  it  became  necessary 
to  vary  the  punishments,  to  augment  their  number,  to  render 
them  more  or  less  severe,  according  to  the  character  of  each 
sovereign,  and  to  regulate  the  manner  of  prosecuting  the  culprit." 
A  strange  institution,  thi!=  for  softening  manners  and  feelings, 
and  putting  an  end  to  muT  '«t  and  bi'  odshed  I  It  is  estimated 
by  Llorente  that  Ferdinand  .ind  Isabella,  through  iheir  cruel 
measures,  lost  two  millions  of  subjects.  "If  any  sect,"  says 
Ludvig  Borne,  "  shouM  ever  take  it  into  their  heads  to  worship 
the  devil  in  his  distinctly-  qualities,  and  devot*  themselves  to 
the  promotion  of  human  misery  in  all  its  forms,  the  catechism 
of  such  a  religion  could  be  found  ready-made  in  the  code  of 
several  monastic  colleges."  Lecky  atfirms  that  in  almost  every 
country  the  abolition  of  torture  was  at  last  effected  by  a  move- 
ment which  the  '^'nirch  opposed,  and  by  men  whom  she  had 
cursed. 

Hence  it  ap^er;;'  that  torture,  extreme  bodily  suffering  and 
death,  vrere  methcds  inseparable  from  the  constitution  of  Chris- 
tianity ;  its  theory  was— salvation  obtained  under  extreme  diffi- 

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i8o    The  Icelandic  Discoverers  of  America; 


culty  beyond ;  its  practice — exemption  from  torture,  bodily 
suffering  or  death,  only  secured  by  entire  concession  to  the 
demands  of  the  Church.  These  demands,  invariably,  were  for 
gain  ;  the  Church  gave  spiritual  nothings,  the  most  vague  and 
false  of  promises,  in  return  for  substantial  property :  it  grew 
rich  in  exact  proportion  as  its  converts  were  impoverished  ;  pre- 
tending to  have  the  monopoly  of  h  aven,  it  actually  gained  the 
monopoly  of  earth  and  has  kept  'U  every  land  called  Chris- 
tian. A  little  further  light  will  be  thrown  upon  the  theological 
method  by  these  words  of  Lecky's  :  "  Now,  of  all  systems  the 
world  has  ever  seen,  the  philosophies  of  ancient  Greece  and 
Rome  appealed  most  strongly  to  the  sense  of  virtue,  and  Chris- 
tianity to  the  sense  of  sin."  The  Church  was  well  aware  at  the 
start  that  unless  men  and  women  could  be  forced  to  confess 
themselves  sinners,  could  be  overcome  with  a  sense  of  their  own 
abasement,  they  would  not  tamely  yield  up  the  goods  and  pos- 
sessions that  the  Church  coveted.  He  adds  :  "  The  ideal  of  the 
first  was  the  majesty  of  self-relying  humanity ;  the  ideal  of  the 
other  was  the  absorption  of  the  manhood  into  God."  The  ideal 
of  the  ancient  Scandinavians  was  the  same  as  that  of  the  ancient 
Greeks  and  Romans:  the  majesty  of  self -relying  humanity,  and 
it  was  chiefly  this  that  stood  in  the  way  of  Christian  purposes. 
Enough  has  been  seen  and  known  of  the  deeds  of  the  Church  ; 
it  only  remains  to  connect  these  deeds  with  their  motive  and  to 
judge  the  Church  accordingly.  No  enlightened  nation  has  ever 
denied  that  the  deeds  were  evil,  but  all  have  maintained  strenu- 
ously that  the  motives  for  the  deeds  were  pure  and  high,  and 
that  the  Church,  on  the  whole,  has  been  justified  in  pursuing 
tiie  course  it  has.  Therein  lies  the  fatal  error.  The  action  of 
the  Romish  Church  and  of  the  entire  Christian  Church,  prior  to 
the  Reformation,  is  epitomized  in  the  use  it  has  made  of  the  two 
discoveries  of  America,  and  its  treatment  of  the  discoverers. 
This  apparent  episode  is  the  pivot  upon  which  all  history  has 
turned,  and  the  bulk  of  past  events  resolve  into  this  single  long, 


OR,  Honour  to  whom  Honour  is  Due.    i8i 


intense  drama !  In  the  Columbus  claim  the  whole  motive  of 
the  Church  stands  revealed,  its  boundless  cupidity  and  avarice  ! 
Its  crimes  are  all  of  the  nature  of  those  that  the  laws  of  civi- 
lized countries  punish  most  severely,  inasmuch  as  all  infringe- 
ments of  the  rights  of  property  are  considered  the  grossest 
offences ;  under  the  head  of  dishonesty,  come  robbery,  spolia- 
tion, plunder,  marauding,  and  depredations  of  every  kind ;  of 
all  of  these  the  Church  is  guilty,  for  it  uses  violent  means,  uses 
threats,  to  obtain  money.  Every  sending-out  of  missionaries  to 
the  heathen  is  a  marauding  expedition,  all  of  the  intimida- 
tions of  the  priests  and  clergymen  are  to  the  end  of  robbiry, 
every  threat  of  hell  is  ruffianism,  to  secure  plunder  These 
organized  robbers,  of  whom  the  whole  civilized  world  stand 
in  awe,  who  enjoy  complete  immunity,  could  not  gain  a  stiver 
from  those  they  oppress,  except  through  inspiring  fear. 

It  is  this  system  of  intimidation  that  the  United  States,  to- 
gether with  the  nations  of  Europe,  is  tacitly  sanctioning,  but 
the  Boman  Catholic  Church  is  not  confent  with  this.  All  these 
crimes  have  been  perpetrated  before  by  the  Church  and  perpe- 
trated with  impunity,  but  in  insisting  on  the  recognition  of 
Columbus'  claims,  the  Church  demands  from  the  United  States, 
and  from  the  world,  public  sanction  of  these  crimes  and  permis- 
sion to  continue  them.  It  demands,  furthermore,  the  ratifica- 
tion of  the  Act  of  Pope  Alexander  VI.,  in  deeding  the  continent, 
of  which  the  American  Republic  now  forms  a  part,  to  Spain,  by 
means  of  a  voluntary  surrender  of  that  coveted  land,  in  the 
excess  of  its  gratitude  to  the  man  and  the  power  to  whom  it  is 
said  to  owe  all  its  greatness, — its  voluntary  surrender  to  the 
Holy  See  in  Eome  1 

But  there  is  a  double  movement  to  effect  the  end  desired : 
simultaneously  with  the  persuasions  used  in  the  Colinubus 
matter,  is  the  coercion  of  a  set  of  men,  under  the  control  of  the 
Catholic  Church  and  in  complete  harmony  with  its  purposes, 
known  as  the  Home  Rule  party.    The  leaders  of  this  party 


1 82    The  Icelandic  Discoverers  of  America; 


employ  threats  that  revive  the  recollection  of  the  early  days  of 
Christianity,  so  violent  and  hrutal  are  they.  They  have  dis- 
tinctly proclaimed  that  there  is  no  extreme  that  they  will  not 
resort  to,  to  force  England  and  the  United  States  to  accede  to 
their  demands.  And  what  are  these  demands  1  The  wholesale 
adoption  of  the  Eoman  Catholic  faith  1  Not  thus  expressed  j 
the  demands  are  for  Home  Eule  in  Ireland,  and  the  so-called 
Liberal  portion  of  an  unthinking  and  heedless  public  do  not  dis- 
cern that  inasmuch  as  Ireland  is  mainly  Boman  Catholic,  Homo 
Eule  for  a  large  Eoman  Catholic  majority  means  no  more  nor 
less  than  Roman  Catholic  rule  in  Ireland^  the  wielding  of  almost 
unrestricted  political  power  by  the  most  unscrupulous  of  Jesuitical 
demagogues ;  it  means  the  establishment  of  a  Eoman  Catholic 
seat  and  stronghold,  west  of  England  and  north  of  France,  that 
can  harass  both,  drawing  its  chief  sustenance  from  the  great 
nation  across  the  Atlantic,  which  hordes  of  Irish-American 
allies  are  using  all  their  infernal  arts  to  subvert  to  their  foul 
purposes  and  which  th6y  confidently  believe  will  yield  to  these 
arts  and  become  the  future  empire  of  the  Pope ;  it  means  the 
elevation  of  Papal  power  to  a  high  northern  latitude,  for  the  first 
time  since  the  Eeformation  ;  it  means  converting  the  Irish  race, 
hitherto  the  scum  of  the  earth,  into  the  scourge  of  the  earth,  to 
harass  and  torment  all  the  other  nations. 
*  These  are  the  full  dimensions  of  the  plot,  the  double  plot, 
connected  by  a  subterranean  passage  of  chicanery.  If  either 
succeeds,  the  Columbus  attempt,  or  the  Home  Eule  attempt,  it 
is  equivalent  to  having  both  succeed,  for  the  Irish  Catholic 
party  will  win  the  day.  And  success,  as  they  confidently  boast, 
depends  only  on  the  amount  of  coercion  they  use.  As  of  old, 
they  have  no  scrapie  about  the  means  ;  the  slaughter  of  thou- 
sands of  innocent  persons,  butchery,  rapine,  the  firing  or  blowing- 
np  of  cities,  savagery  in  every  form,  it  is  the  old  programme 
re-enacted,  and  goes  to  show  how  utterly  impervious  Eoman 
Catholics,  the  most  devout  and  faithful  of  all  Christians,  are  to 


OR,  Hono7;r  to  whom  Honour  is  Due.    183 


all  civilizing  and  humanizing  influences.  After  a  life  of  several 
years  in  the  United  States,  amid  American  mstitntions,  they 
come  out  as  perfect  types  of  medisevalism  as  if  born  and  bred 
in  Spain  or  Italy,  and  are  ready  to  lay  their  sacrilegious  hands 
on  the  fairest  and  noblest  productions  of  civilization.  In  their 
thought,  England  and  the  United  States  are  already  doomed. 
To  such  a  height  has  the  avarice  of  the  Romish  Church 
reached  ! 

Like  a  prophecy  of  succour  from  the  impending  evil  come 
these  words  :  *'  From  the  depths  of  the  North — from  a  remote 
and  unknown  island — a  dawning  light  appeared,  the  harbinger 
of  a  bright  day  that  was  to  enlighten  the  Scandinavian  North 
for  a  century  to  come,  and  to  extend  its  rays  through  other 
lands  and  down  to  later  ages."  From  this  North  we  know  that 
reason  has  once  reigned ;  we  know  how  the  reign  ceased,  and 
we  discern  dimly  how  we  can  cause  its  renewal. 

It  would  now  become  a  work  of  supererogation  to  specify  the 
beneficial  results  of  according  to  Iceland  its  full  due,  of  emu- 
lating its  freedom  and  enlightenment  during  the  days  when  it 
was  a  flourishing  republic,  and  before  it  became  Christianized, — 
of  attributing  the  discovery  of  America  to  the  dauntless  men 
who  sailed  from  those  Northern  shores.  The  North  failed  and 
sank  into  a  decline  through  accepting  Christianity ;  the  treasured 
records  of  its  experience  are  revealed  to  the  two  nations  at 
present  so  grievously  threatened  by  the  rallying  power  of  Kome, 
England  and  the  American  Republic,  just  in  time  to  save  them 
from  its  grasp.  But  for  the  history  handed  down  to  us  from 
Iceland,  we  could  not  have  known  the  extent  of  the  evil  the 
Church  has  wrought,  for  we  would  have  had  no  uncontaminated 
race,  morally  sound  and  healthy,  to  compare  with  the  diseased 
and  enfeebled  one  the  Church  has  produced.  The  actual  life 
in  Iceland,  the  intellectual  stature  of  its  people,  reveal  to  ua 
undreamed-of  possibilities.  In  casting  ofiF  the  incubus  of  the 
Church  we  do  not  enter  unguardedly  into  vague  and  proble- 


i84    The  Icelandic  Discoverers  of  America; 


matical  conditions,  but  we  resume  conditions  once,  found  all- 
sufficient  for  human  welfare,  we  will  again  lead  the  life  of 
rational  beings,  and  defamed  reason  will  be  our  one  sure  guide. 
After  the  defeat  of  its  present  plans  the  Church  of  Rome  will 
hardly  be  in  a  position  to  repeat  its  efforts  for  the  ruin  of  man- 
kind. Thanks  to  Iceland,  and  the  chronicles  of  the  Scandi- 
navian North,  the  Church  now  suifers  exposure  as  well  as  defeat, 
and  its  true  nature  will  for  the  first  time  become  known. 
Henceforth,  however  repulsive,  it  will  cease  to  be  a  dangerous 
power. 


OR,  Honour  to  whom  Honour  is  Due.    i8$ 


CHAPTER   X. 

THB  CELEBRATION   OP  IT  IN   1985! 


il 


Iceland  and  the  United  States  have  several  points  in  common 
and  their  fate  is  interwoven  :  they  were  first  settled  by  men  of 
the  same  race ;  both  have  been  republics,  and  it  will  stand  re- 
corded in  history  that  both  have  had  a  Millennial  Celebration. 
"  And  an  American,"  says  Samuel  Kneeland,  "  could  not  fail  to 
admire  the  courage  of  these  old  Norsemen,  and  to  feel  pity  for 
their  subsequent  loss  of  liberty ;  and  the  more,  as  Iceland  and 
New  England  are,  as  far  as  I  know,  the  only  two  great  republics 
founded  on  a  love  of  civil  and  religious  liberty,  free  from  the 
sordid  motives  of  love  of  gain  and  power."  He  asserts  that 
Iceland  was  justified  in  proclaiming  to  the  nations  the  celebra- 
tion of  her  one  thousandth  anniversary,  and  the  parallel  between 
the  two  will  be  maintained  in  this  respect  also,  for  the  American 
Republic  will  not  only  be  justified  in  proclaiming  to  the  world 
the  celebration  of  the  one  thousandth  anniversary  of  its  dis- 
covery by  the  Norsemen,  but  impelled  by  every  high  motive  to 
pay  this  tribute  to  them  and  to  Iceland  ! 

In  this  celebration,  one  hundred  years  hence,  Iceland  will  re- 
new its  youth  ;  in  this  it  will  reap  the  reward  of  its  long  labours 
for  the  American  Republic,  urged  to  this  public  act  by  the  force? 
of  truth,  by  a  deep  sense  of  all  that  it  owes  to  the  mother  re- 
public, will  then  be  Iceland's  handiwork,  the  flowering  out  of 
the  ancient  wisdom  so  richly  stored  there  !  Ere  Americans  can 
have  this  celebration,  they  must  take  the  step  that  will  for  the 


:        n 


I 


1 86    The  Icelandic  Discoverers  of  America; 


first  time  make  them  a  free  nation,  they  must  abolish  spiritual 
slavery  as  effectually  as  they  have  abolished  the  physical ;  tliere 
must  be  another  declaration  of  independence,  this  time  against 
the  Church  of  Rome  and  its  tributary ;  there  must  be  another 
declaration  of  emancipation, — the  temples  and  their  sacraments 
regarded  as  so  many  slave-marts,  where  souls  are  bought  and 
sold;  the  property  of  the  slave-owners  must  be  confiscated. 
And  one  hundred  years  after  this  has  been  done,  one  hundred 
years  of  development  and  progress,  under  the  most  favourable 
conditions  a  nation  has  ever  enjoyed,  with  the  sense  of  having 
achieved  the  grandest  triumph  in  the  world's  history,  the  utter 
extinction  of  idolatry, — the  United  States  will  be  prepared  to 
have  a  celebration  of  unequalled  grandeur  1 

To  attempt  to  describe  now,  while  we  are  yet  in  spiritual 
bondage,  while  the  United  States  yet  bears  the  spiritual  linea< 
ments  of  the  Old  "World,  and  knows  of  liberty  only  in  the  rudi- 
mentary sense,  what  such  a  celebration  could  be  would  lead  one 
to  be  accused  of  the  most  wildly  Utopian  views ;  any  description 
would  partake  of  the  fabulous  1  Such  a  thing  as  a  state  of 
society  based  on  the  positive  knowledge  that  will  is  might  and 
that  a  rightly  directed  will  is  the  omnipotent  factor  for  good,  is 
absolutely  inconceivable  for  the  people  of  this  generation,  in  their 
impotency  and  flaccidity.  Now  they  will  not  exert  themselves, 
because  they  believe  exertion  useless,  and  this  has  palsied  them ; 
then  they  will  not  need  to  exert  themselves,  for  their  natural 
strength,  of  body  and  mind,  will  be  so  great  that  everything 
they  do  will  seem  easy  to  them.  They  will  wonder  in  those 
happy  days,  not  so  far  distant,  how  there  could  ever  have  been 
poverty  in  the  United  States,  when  the  Church  has  been  made 
to  disgorge  and  the  wealth  locked  up  in  ecclesiastical  establish- 
ments has  been  evenly  distributed  ;  how  there  could  ever  have 
been  starvation,  when  the  rich  soil  yields  so  bountifully  ;  how 
there  could  ever  have  been  mental  famine,  a  paucity  of  ideas, 
when  the  mind  yields  thoughts  as  abundantly  as  the  soil  yields 


•o  «ve  »,  that  it  i,  itd  to  ur^  :'  """ «»'"'  '-  »-ie 
whatever  the  next  wori/Jy  have  tl  off"'"  •  r"''  """  *"«*. 
he  postpoMd  unta  reaching  it  Tf  f  '  '^''^f'""""  »  not  to 
we  have  under  a  totally  mfataken  M  7'  °'"^''  ""»  P^g^ 
be  our  advancement  when  .  k  °'  existence,  what  wiU 

sensations  of  those  permits     T"" '"'»'    ^''«  will  be  the 
How  wil,  the  woridTrrS^^'X^J^-ae  Chu^h  ceU 
t'on-dieti  no  more  seventh  dal  I  ""'"  '"""""oreregula- 

-d  monotonous  readinffrom  a  'i?  ""  T''  ^'"^  P'e^oripLns 
'hechiefinflietionofcivi^::,^f,°"^„'"'»'^„*ae  has  blme 
when  the  Church  canopy  that  1,     ^""  *'"»''»  heavens  look, 
human  gaze  is  removed  I    How  A^th"'™  *°  ''»^"»»  f->» 
Church  cur^e  is  taken  off  of  iu    u"  ™"f  ^'^^-  "^en  the 
appear,  when  they  for  the  fljf  ,;1    ,T  '""  "^  «°>J  women 
«»•!  aee  no  brand  Lre      y^  tC!     "^  ^*  °**'  '»  ">e  fac! 
will  have  no  sorrow  save  tte  sH       "  "'"  '=°""  '"■™  P^eple 
eould  ever  have  been  suTp^J^o^l  ??>  r"*""""  '""'A 

Newfound  health  and  JoHh!?'         I  *°'"'  *»  «"  P^' ' 
will  in  themselves  be  a  celeC?  HT'  "*»"■"»- Powe,,, 
never  fail  of  producing  tmtTor  ^T" '"""^  »"*«»" 

materials  for  that  which^m  CI  the  '"""'  '"'  """P'' 
•enses.    It  will  be  a  duty,  mor^l  '     T  ■""  ^'»^'»"e  the 

-n,  to  show  that  a  gJnrtri^'eTn'T'""''"*  -- 
not  depend  upon  the  Church  te'„rJ  °  Y"'^'^  States,  does 
arrange  a  festival  on  a  sc^l7of  „'^   "^"^  'P'^""''''  effects  or  to 

Pan  of  the  celebratioT^t  Irr  ^  °"=""'''™"-=" 
the  Mount  of  Laws,  the  te^'lt  T  '"''■»'"  ^'h-gvalU,  „„ 
were  held,  "during  L  palS  'o;'hT  *"'  --»'  ?■*%. 
Iceland  Kepublic,_duriLtl„,  f  '''°^°™8andflouri8hme 

and  .markable  Int^lCTv^W^Tf^a'^^ 

^"ed  there  in  9.8  and  in  ISotlJ^Z  ^^T  tr" 


i 


I-  ■ 


:«    i 


iS8    The  Icelandic  Discoverers  of  America; 


celebration  might  take  place  along  the  whole  Atlantic  coast 
discovered  and  explored  by  the  Northmen,  from  Labrador  to 
Florida,  and  in  the  next  one  hundred  years  the  free  institutions 
of  which  the  ancient  Tliinqti  ^vere  the  germ,  will  render  those 


shores  glorious  in  the  exti 
hundred  years  has  been 
the  persecution  of  the  Quo 
hunto,  the  war        indep' 
the  clamour  for       ^'^ 
working-classes — a 


The  progress  of  the  last  two 

led  by  Puritanism,  witch-hunts, 

and  Quaker  conservatism,  slave- 

ice  and  the  war  for  emancipation, 

justice  from  slaves,  women,  the 

rs.     Somehow  with  the  emigrants  to 


America,  all  the  old  c  ^d  had  emigrated  too,  and  sought  iree- 
dom  to  exercise  themselves.  They  were  tenacious,  these  evils, 
and  hard  to  eradicate.  Puritanism  still  remains  ;  if  that  could 
have  been  eradicated  ^rs^,  the  whole  train  of  evils  would  have 
been  removed  with  it.  As  it  was,  Americans  left  that  unmolested, 
,and  have  had  to  grapple  with  each  of  the  social  problems  in 
turn  :  the  slavery  question,  the  woman  question,  the  temper- 
.ance  question,  the  labour  question,  the  finance  question,  settling 
but  one  of  them  in  these  two  centuries — the  slavery  question. 
Social  economists  and  reformers  are  tugging  away  at  each  of 
the  social  evils,  honestly  deploring  them,  but  really  nourishing 
them  through  this  allegiance  to  the  Church.  What  is  needed 
is  manhood  :  too  much  manhood  to  oppress,  too  much  manhood 
to  endure  oppression ;  too  much  manhood  to  offer  liquor,  too 
much  manhood  to  drink  it ;  too  much  manhood  to  troat  women 
badly,  or  as  inferiors,  too  much  womanhood,  which  is  the  same 
in  essence,  to  put  up  with  ill-treatment  or  to  accept  an  inferior 
position.  The  Church  has  destroyed  self-respect ;  hence  these 
evils.  They  are  the  direct  result  of  Christian  pri^aching. 
Poverty  is  not  caused  by  lack  of  money,  but  its  appropriation 
in  large  quantities  by  those  authorized  by  the  Church  to  be 
rulers  and  masters,  ecclesiastics  of  all  grades,  of  which  the  Pope 
is  hefid,  sovereigns,  state  officials,  capitalists,  employers;  the 
rest  may  fare  as  best  they  can. 


OR,  Honour  to  whom  Honour  is  Due.    z^ 


In  the  Iceland  Republic  none  of  these  leforms  were  needed, 
unless,  perhaps,  the  vice  of  intemperance  could  have  been  abated. 
We  have  been  told  repeatedly  by  Christian  v/riters  that  the  in- 
troduction  of  Christianity  in  the  North  did  away  with  slavery. 
?f  this  is  true,  why  did  the  northern  states  of  the  American 
Union  have  to  wage  a  fierce  war  with  the  southern  states  for 
the  suppression  of  an  institution  which  the  Church,  calling  it 
divine,  fully  supported ;  nay,  which  the  Church,  through  its 
good  servants^  the  Spanish  monarcha  and  Columbus,  had  intro* 
duced  and  promoted  1  Mallet  gives  Christianity  the  credit  of 
having  "  re-established  a  part  of  mai>':ind,  who  groaned  under  a 
miserable  slavery,  in  their  natural  rights,"  but  there  is  no  evi- 
dence of  this  in  the  sagas ;  on  the  contrary,  there  is  a  vehement 
protest  from  many  a  fearless  and  outspoken  pagan  against  the 
slavery  that  the  priests  and  kings  were  attempting  to  put  upon 
them,  the  bondage  of  the  new  faith,  and  Laing  asserts  that 
"  in  Norway  this  class  (the  slaves)  appear  to  have  been  better 
treated  than  on  the  south  side  of  the  Baltic  and  to  have  had 
some  rights.  Lodin  had  to  ask  his  slave  Astrid  to  accept  of  him 
in  marriage.  .  .  .  One  owner,  Erling  Skialgsson,  gave  them  land 
to  sow,  and  gave  them  the  benefit  of  their  own  crops ;  and  he 
pat  upon  them  a  certain  value,  so  that  they  could  redeem  them- 
selves from  slavery,  which  some  could  do  the  first  or  second 
year,  and  '  all  who  had  any  luck  could  do  it  in  the  third  year.' " 
F.om  this  it  appears  that  slavery  already  existed  in  the  Christian 
countries  on  the  south  side  of  the  Baltic,  and  consequently  could 
not  have  offended  the  religious  sense  of  the  missionaries  and 
priests  when  they  travelled  northward.  Oswald  expresses  the 
plain  truth  by  saying  :  "  The  Church  that  abolished  slavery 
in  name  promoted  it  in  fact ;  for  her  doctrine  implied  a  divine 
sanction  of  despotism,  and  an  entire  disregard  for  man's  natural 
rights.  The  slave-barracks  of  ancient  Eome  were  temples  of 
liberty  compared  with  the  dungeons  of  the  hierarchical  torture- 
dens,  where  thousands  of  nature's  noblemen  vainly  invoked 


i; 


iQo    The  Icelandic  Discoverers  of  America; 


death  and  madness  as  a  refuge  from  the  power  of  a  more  omel 
foe." 

A  continuation  of  the  slave-system  is  the  poverty-curse.  The 
poor  have  no  rights,  and  they  are  considered  to  be  hound  for 
life.  A  hireling  is  a  slave  to  all  intents  and  purposes ;  labour 
and  the  labourer  are  equally  despised ;  the  favoiured  upper  classes 
all  over  Europe  and  the  United  States  hold  the  belief  that  the 
working-class  are  born  solely  to  toil  for  them  and  to  minister  to 
their  comfort ;  this  servitude  is  to  be  their  permanent  state,  and 
they  have  no  right  to  resist  it  or  to  aspire  beyond  it.  Their  wages 
are  the  least  amount  that  they  can  possibly  subsist  on ;  educa- 
tion, leisure,  enjoyment,  opportunity,  the  use  of  their  higher 
faculties,  are  denied  them ;  they  are  regarded  as  a  species  of 
domestic  animal,  whose  muscles  are  of  the  only  value  to  the 
community.  Artisans  and  mechanics  are  a  grade  higher,  but 
are  likewise  condemned  to  routine  work,  have  closely  stipulated 
exactions  laid  upon  them^  and  are  debarred  from  privileges. 

The  sum-total  of  the  wrongs  and  injustice  suffered  by  women, 
including  that  monster  evil  prostitution,  is  to  be  traced  directly 
to  the  Bible,  to  the  gross  impurity  of  all  the  ideas  contained  in 
that  book  regarding  marriage,  the  conjugal  relation,  procreation, 
woman's  nature.  Pretending  to  worship  the  Creator,  to  revere 
his  revealed  work,  creation,  the  Bible  pronounces  the  highest 
function  delegated  to  the  human  species,  procreation,  vile,  an 
act  instigated  by  the  lowest,  most  bestial  carnal  desire,  and  the 
human  race  are  invariably  spoken  of  as  "  conceived  in  sin." 
This  is  the  reason  why  Jesus  Christ  was  an  ascetic  and  celibate, 
and  why  this  unnatural  way  of  life  was  alone  deemed  holy  and 
exemplary.  Marriage  could  only  be  hallowed  by  making  it  a 
sacrament,  and  was  respectable  and  decent  only  because  it  was 
a  bond  for  life.  The  Church  recognizes  in  marriage  nothing  but 
a  sexual  relation ;  it  is  the  legalizing  of  passion ;  hence  it  is 
opposed  to  divorce,  which  at  once  places  man  and  woman  on  a 
higher  footing  with  each  other,  inferring  intellectual  companion- 


(( 


i«?r'-j 


ere 
est 
an 
the 


OR,  Honour  to  whom  Honour  is  Due.    191 

ship,  reciprocity  of  thought  and  feeling,  and  liberty  of 
choice.  It  is  conceded  to  be  the  duty  of  moral  beings, 
in  every  ether  respect,  to  retract  a  wrong  course  and  to 
repair  any  blunder  they  mp.y  have  committed ;  in  the  matter 
of  marriage  the  Church  forbids  this.  But  in  the  Scandi- 
navian North,  before  Bible  or  treed  were  accepted,  or  the 
Galilean  god  set  up  for  worship,  marriage  was  contracted 
without  any  religious  ceremony  and  could  be  dissolved  for  any 
just  and  sufficient  cause.  '       ,  ,  .,.,., 

Oswald  observes  :  "We  have  been  taught  to  treat  the 
body  as  an  enemy  of  the  soul;  and,  if  bodily  health  is  an 
obstacle  to  true  saintliness,  we  have  evidently  progressed  in  tlie 
path  of  salvation."  But  the  Norsemen  honoured  the  body, 
developed  it  to  the  highest  possible  perfection,  and  in  the  sngor 
and  "  Heimskringla "  one  frequently  reads  of  some  king  or 
warrior,  that  he  was  extremely  handsome,  largo  and  well-fonne>l, 
while  great  praise  is  given  to  the  beauty  of  the  Northern  wonu-ii. 
Sickliness  and  weakness  were  despised  among  them,  and  no 
death  was  more  ignominious  for  a  man  than  that  on  a  sick-bed. 
Their  theories  were  the  reverse  of  those  held  in  these  modem 
times  in  every  respect.  "  Sublunary  life,"  says  Oswald, 
"  according  to  a  still  prevalent  theory,  is  a  state  of  probation 
for  testing  a  man's  power  of  self-denial."  Where  the  Christians 
relinquished,  the  Norsemen  grasped ;  and  in  their  grand  self- 
expansion,  acknowledging  no  limits,  no  prohibitions,  they  fairly 
imbibed  greatness  from  their  surroundings,  visible  and  in- 
visible, and  absorbed  the  power  of  the  elements  into  themselves  j 
essentially  spiritual  in  their  mentality  they  paid  all  deference 
to  qualities,  analyzed  these,  and  arriving  at  accurate  conclusions 
as  to  what  was  worthy  of  high-minded  men,  they  accorded  to 
themselves  the  true  place  in  the  scale  of  being  and  took  their 
place,  proudly  and  defiantly,  as  the  lords  of  creation,  in  a  literal 
sense.  The  modern,  or  Christian  world,  has  been  divided  in 
opinion  as  to  whether  ma:.kind  were  bom  to  rule,  or  to  be 


.It; 


l    I., 


!  "IS;! 

m 


<f  fj* 


1^2    The  Icelandic  Discoverers  of  America; 


ruled,  but  this  ancient  race  did  not  even  debate  the  question, 
they  knew  instinctively  that  men  were  bom  to  rule,  and  they 
did  rule. 

It  is  necessary  for  Americans  to  come  back  to  this  know- 
ledge, and  having  acted  upon  it  for  a  hundred  years,  they  will 
be  qualified  to  celebrate  the  anniversary  in  question  in  a  spirit 
worthy  of  their  Norse  progenitors  !  The  evils  that  the  American 
people  are  vainly  striving  to  reform,  disabled  as  they  are  by  the 
palsying  conviction  that  all  human  efibrt  is  well-nigh  unavailing, 
are  manifestly  not  derived  from  any  Norse  ethics.  These,  on 
the  contrary,  have  been  the  source  of  infinite  gopd,  as  demon- 
strated by  scores  of  authors,  and  destined  to  be  demonstrated 
with  overwhelming  force  when  all  the  philosophy  and  wisdom 
stored  up  in  the  historic  records  of  the  North  shall  have  been 
published  to  the  world ;  but  let  us  look  on  the  reverse  side  of 
the  picture  and  note,  with  Oswald,  what  the  effect  has  been 
of  the  Christian  doctrines.  "  Have  they  ever  added  one  millet- 
seed  to  the  sum  of  human  happiness?"  he  asks.  "Did  the 
apostle  of  Nazareth  ever  speak  one  word  in  favour  of  industry, 
of  rational  education,  the  cause  of  health,  the  love  and  study 
of  nature,  of  physical  and  intellectual  culture  t  Not  one.  Has 
he  promoted  our  progress  in  the  paths  of  science  and  freedom  t 
Not  one  step." 

It  win  be  difficult,  therefore,  to  assign  any  good  reason  for 
further  adherence  to  these  doctrines.  To  tear  down  Christianity, 
tinder  present  conditions,  is  in  no  wise  iconoclasm ;  neither  will 
it  leave  a  moral  vacuum ;  the  necessity  is  not  even  upon  us  of 
building  up  something  else  in  its  stead,  for  a  structure  has 
stood  for  ages,  testified  to  by  reliable  history,  which  the  Church 
and  Christianity  have  obscured  and  hidden  from  the  gaze  ;  we 
need  engage  in  no  useless  or  doubtful  experimenting,  for  a 
republic,  carried  on  under  rationalistic  principles,  has  once 
existed,  and  will  serve  as  a  model  for  the  reconstruction  of 
xnoUern  commonwealths.    A  republic  is  but  half  a  republic^  if 


!'   IS 


u 


OR,  Honour  to  whom  Honour  is  Due.  193 

wibh  a  free  constitution^  the  inhabitants  of  the  land  submit  to 
the  Christian  despotism,  being  subjects  of  the  Church,  and  in 
^leality  are  governed  through  fear,  the  fear  of  future  punish- 
ment Through  the  Chiirch,  monu'chy,  in  its  worst  form,  is 
maintained  in  the  United  States.  Through  the  Church, 
mediaevalism,  with  all  its  vices  and  corruption,  is  maintained ; 
and  so  long  as  this  is  the  case,  nothing  approaching  to  a  modem 
state  of  society  can  be  obtained. 

Lest  the  enthusiasm  roused  by  the  anticipation  of  the 
grandest  celebration  on  record,  in  1985,  be  chilled  by  the 
th«*ugUt  that  U  is  one  hundred  yeans  of^  and  that  the  present 
generation,  and  even  the  next,  will  not  live  to  see  it,  it  should 
be  borne  in  mind  that  such  a  celebration  cannot  be  accom- 
plished in  a  day  or  a  generation.  If  we  would  have  it  in  any 
degree  a  worthy  one,  we  must  begin  now.  Seeds  must  be 
sown  for  such  a  harvest  as  that  1  Iceland,  in  celebrating  her 
millennial^  had  a  thousand  years'  life  to  show,  in  which  she  had 
done  more  than  any  other  commonwealth  "for  liberty,  the 
advance  of  knowledge,  and  the  preservation  of  historic  records, 
at  a  time  when  the  rest  of  Europe  was  in  darknesA,"  but  the 
American  Republic  has  done  nothing  as  yet  to  earn  the  dis- 
tinction that  fate  has  reserved  for  it  in  this  millennial,  which  at 
once  invests  the  young  nation,  lacking  ancestral  dignity,  with 
an  antiquity  dating  a  thousand  years  back,  and  one  that  has 
heretofore  been  the  mere  spoils  of  an  Italian  adventurer  and  an 
avaricious  ecclesiastical  hierarchy — with  the  honour  of  ha^'ing 
been  discovered  by  worthy  and  independent  men,  led  to  its 
shores  by  no  sordid  motives.  The  glory  of  this  fact  wipes  out 
the  ignominy  of  the  other.  But  as  yet  the  people  of  the  United 
States  have  not  even  acknowledged  this  fact ;  several  of  the 
leading  American  historians  deny  it  The  adherents  of  one 
historic  party  are  pressing  Columbus'  claims  j  the  adherents  of 
the  other  have  not  effectually  set  these  aside.  There  has  been 
no  proclamation  of  the  truth,  and  the  public  at  large  are  so 

o 


S  ^ 


194    The  Icelandic  Discoverers  of  America  ; 

utterly  unaware  of  it  that  they  still  hold  to  the  pious  tradition 
that  Coluiufous  discovered  America,  in  1492. 

The  first  duty  is  obviously  to  confirm  the  fact  of  the  Norse 
discovery ;  the  second,  to  make  all  the  history  so  miraculously 
preserved  in  Iceland  accessible,  through  translation  and  publi- 
cation, to  the  entire  English-speaking  public ;  the  third,  is  for 
this  same  public  to  endeavour  to  emulate  the  glorious  example 
of  their  ancestors.  It  were  not  wise  to  predict  that  more  than 
this  can  be  done  in  a  hundred  years.  But  if  less  is  done* 
the  American  Republic  will  not  be  prepared  to  celebrate  the 
millennial  annivexsaiy  of  ita  discovery  as  it  should  be  celebrated  i 


f  i.J".  .< 


u;>'. 


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,>■"    .!>i 


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ii; 


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km     h„'J  'H 


if       ,    >!U1 


A.  >i; 


i{.,  J<iI!l^.■U^t■ 


,-"'j,.>;- 


■*•>  .>J.' 


*>h:' 


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xu 


:lx\ 


^\:n 


D' 


■■i  ^ii 


Q 


OR,  Honour  to  whom  Honour  is  Due.    195 


-l*yr>vv-a  .<T?>5'K''rn>;  ,-:r,.ij'7  ,fj'J-"?t  »/lri'v*f^♦^  •Jf^r.uvjyt.lKiili'h"'^'  ""•'^t 

•fa.JV'  •,-'■:-'■-'  •^-        CHAPTER    XT,  'Jn-'f^  n,}:,,-,.  •>.: 


THE  RIGHTED  POSITION  OF  THE  SCANDINAVIAN  NORTH  AFTER  THIS 
JUSTICE  HAS  BEEN  ACCORDED  TO  IT. 


In  the  single  statement  that  the  discovery  of  America  by  the 
Norsemen  has  never  been  conceded  by  the  world  to  be  a  fact, 
is  comprised  the  universal  injustice  that  has  been  done  the 
Scandinavian  North.  By  the  Scandinavian  North  is  meant 
definitely :  Sweden,  Norway,  Denmark,  and  Iceland ;  thus 
four  nations  that  have  individually  and  collectively  sustained 
the  most  brilliant  national  role  that  has  ever  been  acted  in 
Europe,  or  in  the  world,  have  been  wilfully  consij^nod  to 
obscurity,  their  history  concealed  or  distorted.  Should  it  be 
asked.  How  has  this  been  possible,  and  why  have  they  allowed 
iti  the  answer  is,  that  their  strength  was  sapped  by  the 
introduction  of  Christianity,  planned  and  carried  out  sulehj  for 
this  purpose  ;  that  the  whole  of  Catholic  Europe  has  lieen  in 
combination  against  them,  first  as  pagans,  then  as  Protestjints  ; 
and  that  the  assumption  of  Christian  humility  and  M-eakness  s  i 
completely  destroyed  their  ancient  pride  that  they  were  nut 
capable  of  reasserting  themselves  and  gaining  their  former  rank. 
The  world  has  rung  with  the  exploits  of  great  generals  and 
conquerors,  with  the  names  of  Alexander  the  Great,  Hannibal, 
Napoleon,  Wellington;  but  Hastings,  Rolf,  Ragnar  Lodbrok's 
sons,  Harold  H&rfager,  William  the  Conqueror,  Canute,  are 
scarcely  heard  of ;  nevertheless,  England  was  twice  conquered 
by  Norse  kings ,  and  even  the  great  King  Alfred  was  compelled 

o  2 


rt. 


196   The  Icelandic  Discoverers  of  America* 


to  divide  the  land  with  the  followers  of  Odin.     "When  other 
rulers  have  engaged  in  wars  of  conquest,  this  has  redounded  to 
their  glory,  and  superior  statesmanship,  valour,  ambition,  general- 
ship, have  been  accorded  to  them ;  when  the  Norsemen  have 
engaged  in  wars  of  conquest,  achieving  unparalleled  victories, 
these  results  have  been   described  as  the  ravages  of  lawless 
depredators,  the  incursions  of  the  Northern  sea-robbers,  of  the 
piratical  Danes,  &c.,  &c.     Military  life,  adjudged  honourable 
and  justifiable,  to  this  day,  by  all  civilized  nations,  was,  when 
puisued  by  them,  alleged  to  be  an  evidence  of  their  ferocity 
and  barbarism.     With  bolder  and  more  far-reaching  plans  for 
attaining  the  supremacy  of  Europe  than  even  Russia  has  ever  in- 
dulged in,  the  Scandinavians  were  represented  as  men  of  limited 
intelligence  only  equal  to  pillaging  expeditions  against  un- 
protected coasts.     The  Spaniards,  too,  have  been  quite  willing 
to  forget  this  little  episode  which  occurred  in  the  ninth  century  : 
"  From  Gaul  the  Northmen  crossed  to  Spain  (a.d.  827),  where 
they  came  in  contact  with  the  Arab  conqu'irors,  and  penetrated 
as  far  as  Seville,   the  fortifications  of  which  they  demolished. 
The  votaries  of  Odin  prevailed  over  those  of  Mohammed  ;  and 
proceeding   southward,    they  passed  the   outlet  of  the   Medi- 
terranean, which  from  its  resemblance  to  their  own  Baltic  Strait, 
they  called  the  Niserva  Sund,  or  the  Narrow  Sound."     This  is 
contained  in  *'  Scandinavia,  Ancient  and  Modern,"  by  Andrew 
Crichton    and    Henry  Wheaton.      They   also   penetrated    to 
Jerusalem,   literally  scouring  the  earth,  and  concerning   such 
cosmopolites  such  a  statement  as  that  in  Cooley's  "  History  of 
Maritime  and  Inland  Discovery,"  namely,  that  "  the  geographical 
knowledge  possessed  by  the  Northern  nations  was  never  circum- 
scribed within  such  narrow  limits  as  those  which  confined  the 
views  of  the  early  inhabitants  of  Greece  and  Italy,"— finds  ready 
credence  with  those  who  have  begun  the  study  of  this  remark- 
able race.      Among  the    cultured  inhai  itants  of    all   modwn 
nations  are  very  many  very  expert  traveiiers,  »no  nave  produced 


t>tl,  ttoNOUfe  t6  WHOM  ttONOtJR  IS  DUE.     igjT 


a  voluminous  literature  reapncting  the  foreign  countries  they  liave 
visited,  and  yet  these  would  be  simply  dazed  and  bewildi  red 
in  reading  of  the  way  in  which  the  Norsemen  travelled,  the 
distance  traversed,  —time  and  space  both  annihilated, — the  ease 
with  which  they  transported  fleets,  armies,  from  one  part  of  the 
world  to  another.  In  the  "  Heimskringla  "  one  may  rend,  hit 
or  miss,  of  almost  any  one  of  the  Norwegian  kings^  Harold 
H&rfager,  Hakon,  Olaf  Tryggvason,  or  Olaf  the  Saint,  and  find 
that  he  goes  over  to  Sweden  to  have  a  consultation  with  the 
Swedish  king,  looks  into  Denmark  to  see  how  things  are  getting 
on  there,  travels  back  and  forth  from  Nidaros,  the  Throndhjem 
of  the  high  North,  to  the  Bomsdal  or  southern  Norway,  or 
Bingerike,  sails  around  the  dreaded  promontory  Stad,  the  terror 
of  all  modem  mariners,  without  the  slightest  difficulty,  finds 
time  to  entertain  Icelandic  or  English  visitors,  that  is,  Norse- 
men from  England,  to  gather  the  freshest  foreign  intelligence, 
and  with  all  this  holds  survey  over  the  entire  Norwegian 
coast.  To  one  who  has  travelled  over  Norway  in  the  nineteenth 
century,  knowing  full  well  the  nature  of  the  country  and  what 
has  to  be  encountered  there,  such  accounts  are  simply  incredible  ! 
>It  is  a  slight  incident,  to  be  sure,  but  suggestive,  that  the 
ascent  of  Honielen,  a  high  and  apparently  inaccessible  mountain, 
barren  of  verdure,  near  Stad,  on  the  west  coast,  was  made  by 
-  Olaf  Tryggvason,  who  "  fixed  his  shield  upon  the  very  peak." 
One  of  his  followers  had  also  attempted  to  climb  this  height,  but 
after  awhile  could  neither  get  up  nor  down,  so  that  the  king 
had  to  go  to  his  rescue  and  carry  him  down  in  his  arms.  As  I 
have  myself  twice  sailed  around  Hornelen,  I  can  appreciato  all 
the  merits  of  this  exploit !  What  is  still  more  surprising,  there 
seems  to  have  been  no  scarcity  of  food  or  entertainment  in 
Norway  in  those  days  I  ..,-,.  - 

There  is  therefore  no  exaggeration  in  the  following  state- 
mentj  also  by  Wheaton:  "In  perusing  the  relation  of  their 
extraordinary  achievements,  we  are  impressed  with  the  familiar 


198    The  Icelandic  Discoverers  of  America; 


recollection,  that  it  is  the  liistory  of  a  race  not  only  sprung 
from  the  same  lineage,  but,  in  former  times,  our  superiors 
in  the  arts  both  of  war  and  peace."  More  than  the  conquest 
of  nations,  the  Norsemen  completed  the  conquest  over 
themselves;  their  heroism  has  never  been  surpassed;  it  is 
related  that  Bagnar  Lodbrok  died  singing,  and  Saxo  records,  as 
the  greatest  praise  of  a  celebrated  champion,  that  "he  fell, 
laughed,  and  died.**  ;,,, I    >.,.  r..  ;.)  1 

And  yet  it  is  the  history  of  this  race  that  has  been  suppressed ! 
Could  the  envy  and  malice  of  their  Christian  inferiors  have 
been  carried  farther  t  And  what  is  the  result  1  The  people  of 
Europe  and  the  United  States  are  very  nearly  as  ignorant  of  the 
Scandinavian  North  and  its  inhabitants^  of  its  degree  of  culture, 
its  customs,  as  if  Sweden,  Norway  and  Denmark  were  situated 
at  the  base  of  the  Himalayas !  Indeed,  the  two  first,  especially, 
are  supposed  to  be  encompassed  in  Siberian  darkness  and  snow. 
They  are  ostracized  from  other  nations  almost  as  roving  tribes  are 
debarred  from  intercourse  with  settled  inhabitants  ;  there  is  a 
lingering  echo- of  "roving  freebooters  **  in  the  refined  mind,  and  to 
make  the  acquaintance  of  a  cultivated  Scandinavian  is  deemed  a 
very  piquant  and  unusual  experience  for  a  lady  or  gentleman  of 
society.  The  language  that  was  once  "  the  court  language  in 
Norway,  Sweden,  Denmark,  England,  and  at  Bouen,  became 
confined  to  Iceland,  and  its  two  offshoots,  the  Danish  and 
Swedish  tongues  were,  together  with  the  parent-tongue,  soon 
forgotten  in  England,  and  in  later  centuries  have  seldom  been 
learned  by  any  foreigner."  The  early  history  of  Europe  is  thus 
locked  up  in  an  unknown  language,  or  to  speak  definitely,  the 
history  of  Russia,  Switzerland,  Italy,  Normandy,  Great  Britain, 
the  Orkney  and  Shetland  Isles,  Iceland,  Norway,  Sweden,  and 
Denmark  I  Catholic  Germany  and  France,  Italy,  and  Spain 
have  been  able  consequently  to  suppress  all  knowledge  of  the 
ancient  life  and  culture  of  the  greater  part  of  Europe !  It  is 
permissible  here  to  again  cite  Wilhelmi's  statement  that  "  in  the 


>    OR,  Honour  to  whom  Honour  is  Due.    199 


Heimskringla  we  obtain  from  the  narratives  of  the  Icelanders' 
extensive  voyages  through  all  Europe  to  Rome,  Constantinople 
and  Jerusalem,  also  the  knowledge  of  the  history,  geography 
and  antiquity  of  eastern,  western  and  southern  Europe." 
Fortunately,  the  "Heimskringla"  is  translated  and  arcessiMe 
to  the  entire  English-reading  public,  but  there  are  tomes  upon 
tomes  of  history  that  are  not  translated ;  the  extent  of  this  can 
be  judged  of  somewhat  from  the  fact  that  there  is  a  catalogue 
in  existence,  containing  the  names  of  two  hundred  and  thirty  of 
the  most  distinguished  scalds,  from  the  ninth  century  until 
the  reign  of  Waldemar  II.,  and  the  scalds  and  sagamen, 
be  it  remembered,  were  the  historians  of  the  North.  It  is 
affirmed  by  Cooley  that  "  the  Scandinavians  and  the  Arabians, 
are  perhaps  the  only  people  among  whom  the  reading  or  recital 
of  histories  ever  became  the  ordinary  amusement;"  this  was 
the  superb  fruit  of  the  Norsemen's  cultivation  of  the  art  of 
peace.      .  ;  i  :.U 

The  first  era  of  discovery  was  that  inaugurated  by  the 
Norse  voyagers,  who  found  coast  after  coast ;  the  second  was 
the  quest  for  Icelandic  manuscripts,  in  which  discoveries, 
conquests,  all  manner  of  achievements  were  recorded  ;  it  was 
the  discovery  of  historical  recoMs;  this,  too,  was  Norse,  or 
Scandinavian;  the  vague  knowledge  that  there  were  such 
records  in  existence  did  not  stimulate  England  or  France  to 
search  for  the  annals  of  their  own  ancestors ;  this  was  left  to 
Denmark,  with  the  active  assistance  of  the  Icelanders.  Among 
the  latter,  Amgrim  J6nsson  is  mentioned  as  the  man  "who 
stands  at  the  head  of  the  restorers  of  learning  in  Iceland."  It 
was  he  who  discovered  the  prose  Edda,  in  1628.  Another 
Icelander,  BrynjCilf  Sveinsson,  found  fragments  of  both  the 
prose  and  poetic  Edda,  and,  in  the  year  1640,  found  the  poetic 
Edda  complete.  This  information  is  contained  in  the  intro- 
duction to  "The  Religion  of  the  Northmen,"  by  Professor 
Rudolph  Keyser.    From  the  same  source  we  learn  that  "  the 


200    The  Icelandic  Discoverers  of  America; 


government  also  took  an  active  interest  in  these  antiquarian 
researches.  In  1662,  Frederick  III.  sent  TorfsBUS  to  Iceland 
to  collect  manuscripts,  and  in  1685  Christain  V.  forbade  the 
sale  of  them  to  any  foreigner."  Sweden  was  also  very  active 
in  these  researches,  and  the  namee  of  many  distinguished 
antiquaries  do  the  country  honour.  The  antiquarian  archives 
were  established  at  Upsala,  according  to  the  same  authority,  as 
eariyas  1669,  and  in  1692  removed  to  Stockholm;  their  object 
was  the  preservation  of  Eunic  monuments  and  Icelandic 
manuscripts. 

■  >  The  knowledge  contained  in  these  Icelandic  manuscripts  is 
as  indispensable  to  the  English  and  Americans  as  to  the  people 
of  the  North,  yet  they  do  not  have  it  and  they  scarcely  know 
the  writers  on  Scandinavian  mythology  and  ancient  history, 
Suhm,  Schoning,  P.  E.  MUller,  Lgaerbring,  Peringskiold, 
Nyerup,  Grundtvig,  Montelius,  Hildebrand,  Thorlacius,  Finn 
Magnussen,  even  by  name.  Of  modern  Scandinavian  history 
they  know  very  nearly  as  little.  The  characters  of  Gustaf 
Adolf  and  Carl  XIL,  to  be  sure,  loom  up  out  of  the  mist 
that  enshrouds  Scandinavia,  and  among  artists  and  authors, 
Frederika  Bremer,  Jenny  Lind,  Thorwaldsen,  Hans  Christian 
Andersen,  Tegn^r,  are  regarded  as  phenomena  as  rare  as  they 
are  wonderful.  The  presence  of  such  men  in  Paris  as  August 
Hagborg,  Hugo  Salmson,  Normann,  Smith-Hald,  Heyerdahl, 
"Wahlberg,  is  just  beginning  to  be  acknowledged  in  art ;  Walter 
Runeberg  is  beooniing  celebrated  as  a  sculptor,  but  the  works 
of  his  father,  the  greatest  poet  who  ever  wrote  in  the  Swedish 
tongue,  have  with  two  exceptions,  a  volume  of  his  lyrics  and 
"  Nadeschda,"  *  never  been  translated  into  Englinh.  It  is  quite 
sufficient  to  concede  that  Sweden  has  produced  one  poet, 
Tegn^r  ;  Runeberg,  Geijer,  Nicander,  Wallin,  von  Braun, 
Bellman,   Malmstrom,  Bottiger,  Snoilsky,    can  remain  in  ob- 

*  The  first  by  Eirikr  MagniissoD  and  £.  H.  Palmer,  the  second  by  Marie 
A-  Brown.  ■  '    '  ,    .      i 


OR,  Honour  to  whom  Honour  is  Due.    201 

scurity.  In  the  library  of  the  Goteborg  Museum,  the  works 
on  Swediah  history  fill  seventy-one  pages  of  the  catalogue,  and 
doubtless  a  proportionate  number  of  the  shelves  ;  one  can  find 
there  about  everything,  from  the  early  writings  of  Ericus  OIai» 
and  of  Johannes  Messenius,  in  Latin,  to  those  of  Mellin,  Geijer, 
fryxell,  Starback,  Afzelius,  and  the  rest;  their  name  is  legion ; 
but  so  long  as  Sweden's  history  is  not  admitted  to  be  a  con- 
stituent part  of  the  world's  history,  it  matters  but  little  who  its 
historians  are. 

At  the  present  practical  juncture  the  lack  of  all  this  know- 
ledge is  a  very  serious  drawback  to  right  action ;  it  will  be 
found  that  instead  of  slighting  insignificant  countries,  un- 
worthy the  attention  of  cultured  English  and  Americans,  these 
have  been  debarring  themselves  from  that  which  ia  most 
essential  to  their  national  development,  really  cutting  them- 
selves off  from  their  best  intellectual  supplies.  They  have 
sought  historical  knowledge  from  the  wrong  sources,  and  have 
thus  been  led  away  from  the  truth  ;  this  has  caused  misunder- 
standing and  estrangement  between  the  very  nations  that  ought 
to  have  been  most  closely  united  and  to  have  felt  the  deepist 
pride  in  their  common  origin.  But  this  alienation  was  just 
what  the  enemy,  the  southern  Koniish  enemy,  intended ;  with 
Norway,  Sweden,  Denmark,  Iceland,  England,  Scotland,  and 
the  United  States  banded  together  in  the  closest  fraternity  and 
harmony,  as  they  should  be,  and  as  they  will  he,  once  the  hidden 
historical  truth  becomes  known,  Roman  Catholic  plots  and 
intrigues  will  stand  but  a  poor  chance  of  success. 

There  are  great  numbers  of  Swedish,  Norwegian,  and  Dunish 
works  that  ought  to  be  incorporated  at  once  into  English  lite- 
rature ;  among  these  none  would  be  of  more  immediate  use  than 
the  latest  history  of  Sweden,  "  Svcriges  Historia,"  in  six 
volumes,  written  by  a  combination  of  the  most  able  historians 
and  antiquaries  of  Swod^n,  r)r.s.  Montclius  and  Hlldebrand, 
Professors   Aliu,    Wui' uU,  and  others,  the  style  is  a  highly 


i 


|! 


202    The  Icelandic  Discoverers  of  America; 


attractive  and  popular  one,  and  the  work  is  lavishly  illustrated, 
BO  richly  and  intelligently,  with  scenes  and  places,  historical 
buildings  and  relics,  antiquities,  portraits,  the  ancient  aspects  of 
cities,  &c.,  &c.,  that  the  careless  and  suporticial  could  read  the 
book  pictorially,  and  even  in  this  way  gain  a  better  knowledge 
of  Sweden  than  any  persons  have  possessed  before.  A  para- 
graph from  it  will  do  good  service  just  here,  to  show  the  "  state 
of  barbarism  (?)  among  the  ancient  inhabitants  of  the  North." 
"  A  visit  to  the  National  Museum,  and  a  glance  at  the  gold 
ornaments  there  preserved  from  the  middle  of  the  Iron  Age,  are 
sufficient  to  show  what  an  astonishing  wealth  of  gold  must  have 
existed  here  in  Sweden  1300  or  1400  years  ago.  GoH  bracelets 
of  a  couple  of  pounds  weight  are  several  times  founa,  and  not 
seldom,  when  one  is  working  in  the  soil,  a  large  number  of  gold 
ornaments  are  met  with  from  this  period,  sometimes  going  up 
to  a  considerable  weight  and  a  value  significant  even  in  our 
circumstances."  The  same  author.  Dr.  Oscar  Montelius,  goes  on 
to  say:  "  Commerce  and  Viking  expeditions,  during  the  period 
now  in  question,  brought  an  almost  incredible  quantity  of 
precious  metals,  mostly  silver,  to  Sweden.  How  great  the  stock 
of  silver  at  that  time  was  in  the  land,  is  best  realized  by  the 
considerable  masses  which  are  still,  after  the  space  of  about  one 
thousand  years,  annually  dug  up  from  the  earth.  Only  during 
the  last  twelve  years  the  National  Museum  has  received  more 
than  72  kilograms  (170  pounds  I)  of  silver  found  in  Swedish 
soil  from  Viking  times.  It  is  remarkable  that  the  silver  now 
appears  in  such  quantity  ;  this  metal,  it  is  true,  had  been  known 
in  our  land  since  shortly  after  the  birth  of  Christ,  but  for  many 
centuries,  clear  to  the  beginning  of  the  Viking  period,  silver 
seems  to  have  been  more  rare  here  than  gold."  Describing  the 
large  commerce  that  was  sustained,  by  way  of  Russia,  with  the 
East,  he  adds:  "The  certainty  is,  that  Sweden,  by  way  of 
Russia,  obtained  from  Constantinople  costly  fabrics  and  other 
QQveted  commodities,  which  the  refined  Byzantines  had  to  offer 


OR,  Honour  to  whom  Honour  is  Due.    203 


the  pomp-loving  Northerners  in  exchange  for  their  valuable  b^xs 
and  other  wares."  Horace  Marryatt  states  that  "  in  the  inventory 
of  Gripsholm,  during  the  reign  of  King  Gustaf,  every  object 
noted  down  is  of  foreign  manufacture."  Among  the  importa- 
tions during  this  reign  are  mentioned  dye-8tu£fs,  fruits,  gaiden- 
products,  ^lass,  gold,  gems,  horses,  confectionery,  linen  wares, 
silk  and  velvet,  silver,  tapestries, — all  giving  evidence  of  refine- 
ment, love  of  luxury,  and  an  extremely  cultivated  taste,  and  yet 
the  statement  that  Sweden  at  the  present  day  has  two  univer- 
sities, and  upwards  of  130  public  high  and  normal  schools  of 
various  grades,  besides  the  special  schools,  and  9639  elementary 
schools ;  that  it  has  over  4000  miles  of  railway ;  a  commercial 
navy  of  44 tl  vessels;  a  "Sevres"  of  its  own,  the  porcelain 
factory  at  Rorstrand,  which  has  been  the  recipient  of  no  less 
than  ten  medals,  from  Paris,  Moscow,  Berlin,  Malinio,  Boris, 
Stockholm,  Bogota,  Copenhagen,  Philadelphia,  and  Vienna ;  an 
opera-house,  built  by  the  art-loving  Gustaf  III.,  which  in  1882 
celebrated  its  centennial,  and  in  which  all  the  operatic  require* 
ments,  singers,  orchestra,  ballet,  scenic  decorations  (invariably 
fine),  even  to  the  translation  of  the  text  into  Swedish,  all  the 
Italian  librettos,  are  filled  by  native  artists;— this  statement  will 
excite  incredulous  surprise  in  all  who  read  it. 

The  world  has  been  so  deeply  impressed  with  the  supposed 
fact  of  the  wretched  barbarism  and  ignorance  of  the  ancient 
Scandinavians  that  it  stubbornly  refuses  to  believe  that  the 
modem  Scandinavians  have  ever  made  any  perceptible  progress 
in  letters  or  art.  In  England  this  scepticism  is  particularly 
marked ;  but  either  there  or  in  the  United  States  the  assertion 
that  the  contrary  is  the  case,  is  almost  resented.  Nevertheless, 
the  Salon  every  year  borrows  much  of  its  lustre  from  the 
works  of  Scandinavian  artists,  and  such  men  as  Normann, 
Cederstrom,  Salmson,  Hagborg,  Smith-Hald,  are  in  no  danger 
of  being  eclipsed.  In  Johannes  Jaeger's  illustrated  catalogue  of 
the    celebrated  art-works  of  Sweden,  Norway  and  Denmark, 


Ml 


ti 


204   The  Icelandic  Discoverers  of  America; 


there  are  no  loss  than  618  works,  paintings  and  sculptura 
included,  yet  this  by  no  means  represents  all.  These  three 
countries  have  given  their  full  quota  of  geniuses  to  the  world, 
and  the  general  enlightenment  v:  ould  have  been  immeasurably 
increased  had  the  fruits  o'  the' :  united  labours  been  accepted. 
As  it  is,  there  has  been  little  or  no  affiliation  between  the 
Scandinavian  mind  and  the  European  or  American  mind  ;  the 
finest  literary  and  art  productions  of  the  North  have  been 
scorned  or  ignored  altogether  ;  an  overwhelming  amount  of 
evidence  has  been  required  to  convince  the  outside  public  that 
the  North  could  produce  anything  of  any  value,  and  these 
nations,  the  oldest  in  civilization  and  culture,  the  intellectual 
parents  and  teachers  of  nearly  every  nation  in  Europe,  have 
been  regarded  as  tyros,  as  extremely  young  and  unskilled 
aspirants  for  fame,  whose  mediocrity  was  only  equalled  by  their 
presumption  in  daring  to  enter  the  lists  at  all. 

Several  centuries  of  this  treatment  could  not  fail  to  have  its 
effect  upon  those  who  suffered  it ;  it  has  greatly  reduced  the 
national  sense  of  greatness  in  the  Scandinavian  lands  and  dimmed 
the  ambition  that  once  burned  with  so  bright  a  flame.  The 
Swedes  of  the  present  day  have  almost  come  to  believe  the 
world's  contemi)tuou8  verdict  of  them  ;  in  their  wounded  feeling 
their  pride  now  is  to  be  as  exclusive  as  possible  and  not  to  seek 
intercourse  with  other  nations  at  all ;  they  argue,  and  with  a 
si  low  of  right,  "  if  foreigners  are  so  ignorant  as  not  to  estimate  us 
pr()i)erly,  we  will  make  no  effort  to  undeceive  them  ;  it  is  really 
ol  no  consequence  to  us  what  they  think."  Consequently,  although 
Sweden  has  acquired  a  permanent  bearing  upon  the  universal 
mind,  a  permanent  place  in  the  ranks  of  those  who  havj  done 
most  for  the  advancement  of  the  human  race,  nay,  in  respect  to 
securing  the  fundamental  conditions  for  spiritual  enlightenment, 
even  having  led, — it  is  suffered  to  sink  into  a  decline,  the  records 
of  its  past  greatness  are  buried,  one  cannot  say  forgotten,  for 
they  have  never  Ven  known,  the  works  of  Swedish  authors  stand- 


OR,  Honour  to  whom  Honour  -s  T>ir^.,    20J 


comparatively  unread,  on  the  shelves  of  Swedish  libraries,  and  the 
country  languishes  in  its  isolation,  deprived  of  the  prosperity  that 
commerce,  large  financial  relations  and  extensive  intercourse  with 
other  lands  would  ^ield  it.     The  bulk  of  the  people  in  Norway 
are  content  if  a  crowd  of  tourists  visit  the  country  every  summer 
simply  to  view  its  grand  and  beautiful  scenery.     In  material 
development  it  is  not  nearly  so  far  advanced  as  Sweden,  is  much 
more  thinly  populated,  and  the  resources  are  less  in  every  way. 
Norway  passed  into  a  decline  at  the  expiration  of  the  Viking 
period,  and  has    nothing  in   its  history  to  correspond  with 
Sweden's  "  period  of  greatness."     Still,  in  its  literature  and  art 
Norway  stands  very  high,  and  a  few  leading  spirits  among  the 
Norwegians,  both  at  homo  and  abroad,  manifest  much  patriotism 
and  national  pride,  and  in  this  instance  the  few  ;vill  exalt  the 
many.     Denmark,  however,  has  steadily  held  it3  own,  and  being 
greatly  favoured  by  its  proximity  to  the  continent,  has  never 
been  ignored  so  completely  as  Norway  and  Sweden.     The  Danes 
have  shown  more  energy  and  strength  of  character  than  the 
Norwegians  and  the  Swedes,  and  the  steps  they  have  long  since 
taken  to  demonstrate  historic  truth  in  the  great  matter  under 
consideration,  make  them  the  leaders  in  this  new  movement. 

But  whatever  remissness  the  nations  of  the  North  may  be 
charged  with,  the  cause  of  this  remissness  lies  with  the  other 
countries,  who  have  almost  denied  that  they  existed ;  and  the 
instigators  of  this  widespread  injustice  are  the  Soman  Catholics 
and  the  Church  whence  they  emanated.  The  blame  for  the 
whole  of  this  disastrous  state  of  things,  which  must  now^  in  all 
haste,  be  changed,  to  avert  a  dire  calamity,  rests  upon  the  people 
of  every  land  who  have  acted  under  Boman  Catholic  influence 
and  bjlieved  Eoman  Catholic  lies,  against  their  better  judgment. 
It  is  not  for  these,  therefore,  to  consider  the  duty  of  the  Nor- 
wegians, Danes,  and  Swedes  in  the  present  exigency,  but  to 
perform  their  own.  Let  them  read  and  ponder  well  all  that  has 
been  translated  into  their  respective  languages  upor  Scandinavian 


I 


>-i 


5Jc  1 


2o6   The  Icelandic  Discoverers  of  America; 


history  and  mythology,  and  upon  the  Norse  discovery  ;  let  them 
demonstrate  and  proclaim  what  they  will  speedily  ascertain  to 

■  be  facts ;  let  them,  in  a  word,  turn  the  tide  of  error  and  remove 
the  false  landmarks  that  lead  all  astray. 

One  practical  step  that  should  be  taken  at  once,  is  clearly  in- 
dicated by  Professor  Howard  Crosby  in  his  introductory  letter 

•  to  Sinding's  "  History  of  Scandinavia  :  "  "  "Wo  oddly  mingle 
the  old  and  the  new,  the  dim  and  the  bright,  when  we  turn  to 
Scandinavia,  as  we  do  with  no  other  land.  This  double  charac- 
ter naturally  lends  peculiar  attraction  to  its  history.  Yet  with 
all  this  attraction,  the  history  of  no  part  of  Europe  is  less  familiar 
to  the  general  mind  ;  probably  because  the  Scandinavian  coun- 
tries lie  somewhat  off  from  the  world's  great  highways,  and  par- 
ticipate but  moderately  in  the  world's  chief  commerce.  This 
should  not  be.  The  ignorance  is  a  fault,  especially  among  us  of 
English  descent,  whose  ancestral  history  is  so  intimately  and 
variously  associated  with  that  of  Denmark,  Sweden  and  Norway. 
The  Norserun  have  left  the  memorials  of  their  habitation  on 
the  coast  of  Scotland,  where  Runic  inscriptions  tell  the  story  of 
their  prowess,  while  through  .iich  of  England  the  familiar 
names  of  towns  and  hamlets?  are  purely  Norse.  ...  It  is  there- 
fore full  time  that  ou;  universities  should  have  their  chairs  of 
Scandinavian  litera  re,  as  a  needful  part  of  the  apparatus  for  a 
thorough  English  education,  to  render  more  complete  the  exa- 
mination of  the  roots  of  our  speech  and  race.  'V\Tiile  this  want 
is  felt,  we  may  gladly  hail  any  contribution  to  American  litera- 
ture which  tends  to  open  this  interesting  field  of  research." 

Yes,  that  is  precisely  what  is  needed,  chairs  of  Scandinavian 
literature  in  the  American  and  English  universities,  skilful 
teachers  of  the  Swedish  and  Danish  languages,  and  a  good  corps 
of  translators  set  to  work  at  once  to  put  the  most  valuable  Scan- 
dinavian books  into  English.  There  should  indeed  be  a  society 
formed  to  fulfil  an  office  parallel  to  that  of  the  Royal  Society  of 
Korthem  Antiquaries,  in  Copenhagen  ;  this  society  rendf  rs  the 


OR,  Honour  to  whom  Honour  is  Doe.   207 


li 


more  important  of  the  Icelandic  manuscripts  accessible  to  the 
iJauish  public,  the  other  should  render  all  valuable  Scandinavian 
histories  r  ad  records  accessible  to  the  entire  English-speaking 
public.  This  highly  necessary  work  has  already  been  deferred 
n:uch  too  long.  With  every  hour  that  is  delayed  will  the  after 
compunction  and  humiliation  be  increased,  the  painful  sense  of 
having  defrauded  the  Scandinavian  North  of  its  rightful  position, 
of  having  been  guilty  of  the  basest  ingratitude.  In  the  near 
future  it  will  be  realized,  too,  how  deeply  we  of  English  descent 
have  defrauded  ourselves  in  defrauding  them,  how  seriously  we 
have  lowered  our  own  rank  in  lowering  theirs ! 

Still,  after  all  remissness  and  shortcomings,  the  destiny  of  the 
united  nations  of  the  Scandinavian  stock  is  a  bright  one.  In  a 
joint  act  we  will  both  acknowledge  our  ancestors  and  be  acknow- 
ledged as  their  true  heirs  and  descendants ;  to  give  will  be  to 
receive  in  a  s  nse  never  realized  before ;  once  hospitable  to 
Northern  thought.  Northern  history,  Northern  memories, 
Northern  poetry,  to  the  beauty  that  Northern  genius  has  evoked 
from  marble  and  canvas,  to  the  noble  legends  and  traditions 
that,  having  done  so  mnch  to  inspire  genius  in  their  native 
realm,  will  also  lead  the  commercial  and  matei  ialistic  mind  of 
the  Continent  and  the  United  Sales  to  lofty  ideals,- once 
hospitable  to  these,  we  will  entertain  many  an  angel  un- 
awares ! 

What  we  are  called  upon  to  do,  and  what  we  will  soon  do  with 
glad  eagerness,  is  to  attribute  to  our  honoured  Noise  progenitcirs 
the  grandest  discovery  that  was  ever  made,  the  discovery  of  the 
American  continent;  the  conquest  and  remndelling  of  nearly 
the  whole  of  Europe  ;  the  founding  of  several  great  empires  and 
republics  ;  the  manly  and  determined  resistance,  for  five  hundred 
years,  to  the  sj'stem  of  idolatry  known  as  the  Roman  Catholic 
or  Christian  religion  ;  the  renewnd  opposition  to  this  during  the 
Befoimation  ;  the  permanent  rescue  of  the  three  Scandinavian 
nations,  including  Iceland,  and  the  American  Eepublic,  from  the 


i 


doS   1*HE  Icelandic  t)iscovERERS  of  America. 

insatiate  grasp  of  the  Bomish  power;  the  consequent  liberty  of 
thought  and  person. 

This  done,  the  Scandinavian  North  will  at  once  resume  its 
true  rank,  and  stand  forth  as  the  acknowledged  intellectual  and 
moral  leader  of  the  ciyilized  world,  as  attested  by  every  page  of 
itshistoiyl     ^ 


^  J|tlW>* 


■>^i-.Vi-,. 


BIBLIDGHAPHT  OP  THE  IMPORTANT  BOOKS  CON- 
FIRMING  THE  ICELANDIC  DISCOVERY  OF 
AMERICA  FROM  THE  YEARS  1076-1883. 


m 


1076. 

1570. 
1594. 
1611. 
1642. 
1705. 
1765. 


1767. 
1773. 

1777. 
1786. 

1808. 


1810. 
1811. 
1812. 


Adam  von  Bremen.    "Historia  Ecclesiastica  Ecclesiarum 

Hamburgensis  et  Bremensis."     Publiahed  in  Copenhagua 

in  1579. 
Abraham  Ortelins.    "  Theatrum  Orbia  Terrarum."    English 

translation  published  in  London  in  1606. 
A  Danisn    translation    published    of    Suorre    Slurleson's 

"  Heimskrin^la."    Copenhagen. 
Abraham    Mylms.      "  Treatise    de    Antiquitate     Lingua) 

Belgicse."    Leyden. 
Hugo  Grotius.     "  Dissertatio  de  Origine  Gentium  Amcri- 

canarnm."    Paris. 
Thormodus    Torfaaus.      '*  Historia    Vinl  mdiae     AiiUquie." 

HavnisB. 
Paul  Henri  Mallet.    "Introduction  k  I'Histoire  de  Danrm- 

marc."    Copenhagen.      Bishop   Percy's    En.,'lish    trana- 

lation  published  in  London  in  1770.    Title  :  •'  North  irn 

Antiquities." 
David  Cranz.     "  History  of  Greenland."     London. 
Benjamin  Franklin.    Letter  to  Mr.  Mather,  in  ''  Memoirs  of 

the  Life  of,  &c."    London. 
Uno  von  Troil.    "  Letters  on  Iceland."    Upsala. 
John  Beinhold    Forster.      "  History  of  the  Voyages    an  I 

Discoveries  made  in  the  North."    London. 
John  Piukerton.     "  A  general  Collection   of  the  best  antl 

most  interesting  Voyages  and  Travels  in  all  parts  of  the 

World."    London. 
••  Annales  des  Voyages."     Paris. 

Sir  G.Steuart  Mackenzie.  "  Travels  in  luelend."  Edinburgh. 
Hugh   Williamson.      "The  Hii?tQry  of   >iorth   Carolina." 

Philadelphia. 


11 


210 


BiBUOGRAPHY. 


1817.  Conrad  Malte-Brun.    "  Histoire  de  la  G^ographie.'*    Paris. 

1818.  John  Barrow.    "  A  Ohr  mological  History  of  Voyages  into 

the  Arctic  Regions."    Lonilon. 

1818.  J.  H.  Shroeder.  "  Svea.  Tidskrift  for  Vetenskap  ooh  Konst." 
Upsala. 

1818.  Ebon.  Henderson.  "  Icelanl ;  or,  the  Journal  of  a  Resi- 
dence in  that  Island  during  the  year  18141-15."  Edin- 
burgh. 

1824.  John  V.  N.  Yates.    "  History  of  the  State  of.  New  York." 

New  York. 

1825.  Erik  Gustaf  Geijer.    "  Svea  rikes  hafder."    TJpsala. 

1828.  Washington  Irving.  "  A  History  of  the  Life  and  Voyages 
of  Christopher  Colnmbus."     Ldndon  and  New  York. 

1830.  Henry  Wheaton  and  Andrew  Crichton.  "  Scandinavia, 
Ancient  and  Modern.'"     Edinburgh. 

1830.  W.  Cooley.     "  The  History  of  Maritime  and  Inland  Dis- 

cover  y."     Loudon. 

1831.  Henry  Wheaton.    "  History  of  the  Northmen,  or  Danes  and 

Normans,  from  the  earliest  times   to  the  Conquest  of 
England  by  William  of  Normandy."     London. 
1831.  W.  Joseph  Snelling.    "  The  Polar  Regions  of  the  Western 
Continent  Explored."     Boston. 

1833.  Finn  Magnusen.     "Nunlisk  Tidsskrift  for  Oldkyndighet" 

Vol.  II.     Copenhagen. 

1834.  Josiah  Priest.    "  American  Antiquities  and  Discoveries  in 

the  West"    Albany. 
1834.  T.  Campauins.     ''Description   of    the    Province    of    New 

Sweden."     Philadelphia. 
1836.    Constantin  Samuel  Rati nesquo.     "The  American  Nations; 

or,  Outlines  of  their  General  History,  Ancient  and  Modern." 
M^y  Philadelphia. 

1836.  "Report  addrfissed  by    the   Royal    Society    of    Northern 

Antiquaries    to    its   British    and    American    members." 
Copenhagen. 

1837.  Charles     Christian     Rafn.      "  Antiquitates    Americanae." 

Copenhagen. 

1837.  Wilhelin  August  Graah.     "  Narrative  of  an  Expedition  to 

the  East  Const  of  Greenland  ...  in  search  of  the  lost 
Colonies."     Lonilon  and  Copenhagen. 

1838.  W.  H.  Prescott     "  History  of  the  reign  of  Ferdinand  and 

Isabella."     London  and  New  York.  ..    ,,.; 

1838.  Foreign  Quarterly/  Itcview.     Loudon. 
1838.  Edward  Everett..     North  American  Review.     Boston. 
1838.  Tlie  D  moc ratio  Re oiew.     Washington.  •   •  -  ,.  ,..; 

18^.   The  Nc IV  Yor/c  Review.     New  York.        '  ■■'• 

1838.  "  The  lloyal  Geographical  Society."     London. 

1839.  J.  Toulmin  Smith.    "The  Discovery  of  America   by  the 

Iforthmen."    London, 


Nl 


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ajjt. 


II 


18^9.  Gienville  Pigott.     "  Scandinavian  Mythology.''     London. 

1841.  N.  L.  Beamish.    "  The  Discovery  of  America  by  the  North- 

men."   London.  . 

1842.  K.  Wilhelmi.    "  Island,  Hvitramannalahd,   Gronland  nnd 

Vinland,  oder,  der  Normanner  Leben  anf  Island  und 
Gronland  und  deren  Fahrten  nach  America  schon  iiber 
600  Jahre  vor  Columbus." 

1843.  Th.    H.    Erslew.      "  Almindeligt     Forfatter-Lexicon    for 

KongerigetDanmark."    Vol.  IL,  pp.  6y7— 603. 

1844.  Samuel  Laing.    "Translation  of  the  Heimskringla,  with  a 

preliminary  Dissertation."    London. 
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^  .    ^     durch  die  Islander  im  zehnten  und  elften  Jahrhunderte." 
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1847.  Alexander  von  Humboldt.    "  Cosmos.**    London. 
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Menschheit."    Leipsig. 
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People.    Vol.  VI.    Edinburgh. 
1850.  John  T.  Shillinglaw.  "  A  Narrative  of  Arctic  Discovery  from 

the  earliest  period  to  the  present  time."    London. 
1852.    Jens  Jacob  AsmussenWorsaae.  "An  account  of  the  Danes  and 

Norwegians  in  England,  Scotland  and  Ireland."    London. 
1852.  William  and  Mary  Howitt.    "  The  Literature  and  Romance 

of  Northern  Europe."    London. 
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holm. 
1854  Jacob  Budolph  Keyser.    "  The  Religion  of  the  Northmen." 

London. 
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York. 

1856.  S.  F.  Haven.     Smithsonian  Institute.    Washington. 

1857.  Charles  Wyllys  Elliott.     "The  New   England  History.** 

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1857.  Oscar  Ferdinand  Peschel.    "  Geschichte  des  Zeitalters  der 

Entdeckungen."     Stuttgart. 
1860.  Georg  Michael  Asher.    "  Henry  Hudson,  the  Navigator.'* 

London. 
1860.  Em.  Domenech  (L'abb^).    "  Seven  Years*  Residence  in  the 

Great  Deserts  of  North  America."     London. 
1860.  Sir  Charles  Forbes.    "Iceland;  its  Volcanoes,  Geysers  and 

GlacierH."     London. 
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hagen. 

1862.  Andrew  James  Symington.    "  Pen  and  Pencil  Sketches  of 

Faroe  and  Iceland."    London. 

1863.  Sabine  Baring- Gould.    "Iceland;  its  Scenes  and  Sagas.** 

London. 

p2 


l! 


Irl 


212 


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Paris. 

1864.  L.  S.  Borring.    "  Notices  on  the  Life  and  Writings  of  Carl 

Christian  Kafn."    Copenha£[en. 

1865.  Daniel  Wilson.     "  Pro-Mistonc  Man :  Researches  into  the 

Origin  of  Civilization  in  the  Old  and  the  New  World." 
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1866.  Paul  C.  Sinding.    "  History  of  Scandinavia,  from  the  early 

times  of  the  Northmen,  the  Sea-Kings  and  Vikings,  to 
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1867.  Hans  Hildebrand.    "  Lif vet  p&  Island  i  Sagotiden.**    Stock- 

holm. 

1868.  Jacob  Rndolph  Keyset.    "The  Private   Life   of  the   Old 

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1868.  Carl  Wilhelm  von   Paijkull.     "A   Summer   in   Iceland.'* 

London. 
1868.  B.  F.  De  Costa.   "The  pre-Columbian  Discovery  cI  America 

by  the  Northmen."    Albany. 
1870.  B.  F.  De  Costa.    "  The  Northmen  in  Maine."    Albany. 
1872.  Cristoforo  Colombo.    "Select  Letters."     Translated    and 

edited  by  R.  H.  Major.    London. 

1872.  Oornhill  Magazine.    London. 

1873.  National  Quarterly  Bfeview.    New  York. 

1873  R  H.  Major.    "  Voyages  of  the  Zeni.*'    London. 

1874.  Gabriel  Gravier.       "  D^couverte  de   I'Ameriqne    pai    lea 
,  Normands  an  X*  Si^le."    Rouen  and  Paris. 

1874  Aaron  Goodrich.  "  A  History  of  the  Character  and  Achieve- 

ments of   the   so-culled   Christopher  Columbus."    New 
York. 

1874.  Rasmus  B.  Anderson.    "  America  not  Discovered  by  Co- 

lumbus."   Chicago. 
1876.  Thomas  Carlyle.    "  The  Eariy  Kings  of  Norway."    London. 

1875.  Bayard  Taylor.     "  Egypt  and  Iceland  in  the  year  1874." 

London  and  New  York. 
1875.  •Hubert  Howe  Bancroft.    "  The  Native  Races  of  the  Pacific 

States  of  North  America."    New  York. 
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A  Thousand  Years  of  the  Old  Northmen's  Homd.     874^ 
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1875.  J.  T.  Short.    "  The  Galaxy."    New  York. 

1876.  Gilderoy  Wells  GrifEen.     "  My  Danish  Days."    Philadel- 

phia. 

1876.  Marie  A.  Brown.    "The  Galaxy."    New  York. 

1876-81.  William  CuUen  Bryant  and  Sidney  Howard  Gay.  "  A 
Popular  History  of  the  TTnited  States,  from  the  First 
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1876.  'Samuel  Kneeland.    "  An  American  in  Iceland."    Bostom. 


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1877.  Alexander  Farnnm.     "  Visits  of  the  Northmen  to  Bhode 

Island."    Providence. 
1877.  Thomas  Wentworth  Higginson.      *'A  Book  of  American 

Explorers."    Boston. 
1877.  N.  L.  Beamish.    "  Voyages  of  the  Northmen  to  America." 

Edited  by  E.  F.  Slafter.    Boston. 
1880.  J.  T.  Short.    •'  The  North  Americans  of  Antiqnity."    New 

York. 
1880.  Bev.  F.  Metcalfe.  "The  Englishman  and  the  Scandinavian  " 

London. 

1880.  G.  H.  Preble.    "  History  of  the  Flag  of  the  TJ.S.A.,  and  the 

Flags  of  Ancient  and  Modem  Nations."    Boston. 

1881.  Frank  Vincent,  Jr.    "  Norsk,  Lapp  and  Finns,  &o."    London 

Btud  I^6w  T^ork 

1881.  P.  B.  Da  ChaUln.    "The  Land  of  the  Midnight  Son." 

London  and  New  York. 

1882.  S.  S. Cox.    "Arctic  Sunbeams."    New  York. 

1883.  Jules  Leclercq.    "  La  Terre  de  Glace."    Farii. 


(¥^y 


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APPENDIX 


Conhrmation  from  Roman  Catholic  authorities  of  the 
statement  made  in  this  book  ;  namely,  that  in  the  Vatican 
and  other  monastic  libraries  of  Europe,  are  the  records 
and  documents  that  will  fully  establish  the  fact  that 
America  was  discovered  by  Leif  Erikson  in  the  year  1000, 
and  that  Norse  colonies  existed  there  for  several  centuries. 

Extracts  from  Centennial  Discourse  Delivered  by  Bev. 
Wm.  F.  Clark,  S.  J.,  at  St.  Joseph's  Church,  Phila- 
delphia, July  ith,  1876. 

As  Catholics  we  have  special  cause  for  re- 
joicing :  for  the  light  of  oiir  faith  was  the  first 
to  gild  with  its  glory  the  land  that  we  love  ;  our 
missionaries  the  first  to  preach  here  the  name  of 
Christ ;  our  martyrs  tlie  first  to  fertilize  with 
their  blood  the  soil  out  of  which  lias  sprung  the 
thousands  of  Christian  temples,  whose  lofty 
spires  we  now  behold  lift  heavenward  the  glit- 
tering emblem  of  salvation,  in  every  State  and 
Territory  of  the  Union.  Centuries  before  the 
great  Christopher  Columbus  had  opened  a  way 
through  mid-ocean  from  Europe  to  America,  our 
priests,  by  the  authority  of  the  Roman  Pontiff — 
yes,  and  our  bishops  too — had  landed  on  the  shores 
of  more  than  one  of  the  thirteen  original  States, 


SUPPRESSED  HTSTORTCAL  FACTS. 


liad  preached  our  faith,  offered  our  sacriiice,  ad- 
ministered our  sacraiiients  and  died  martyrs  to 
their  zeal  for  our  religion.  Tliese  are  facts  little 
known  even  to  the  learned  until  comparatively 
of  late  years,  when  the  researches  of  American 
antiquarian  societies,  both  here  and  in  Europe, 
placed  within  reach  of  the  student  the  many 
precious  documents  relating  to  the  pre-Colum- 
bian period  of  our  Iiistory,  which  had  long  and 
carefully  been  preserved  in  the  royal  library  in 
Copenhagen  and  the  Papal  library  of  the  Vatican 
at  Rome. 

That  Ions:  before  the  ninth  centurv,  Catho- 
licity  was  transplanted  from  the  shores  of  Eu- 
rope, Asia,  or  Africa  to  those  of  America,  by 
bold  navigators  and  hardy  adventurers,  is  highly 
probable.  But,  interesting  as  the  examination 
of  such  a  question  might  prove,  we  cannot  at- 
tempt it  now,  but  must  be  satisfied  with  the 
8tate)nent  that,  according  to  the  records  that 
have  thus  far  come  to  light,  the  first  Christians 
who  visited  this  country  came  from  Greenland 
and  Iceland,  known  to  geographers  as  Danish 
America.    , ,        . 

Catholic  missionaries  visited  Danish  America 
in  827  {Moosmueller,  a  BenediGtine  monk.  In 
his  work  he  has  a  list  ()f  sixty-eight  authors  who 
ha/oe  treated  of  the  jpre'Columhian  history  of 
America),  more  than  a  thousand  years  ago.  In 
831,  Pope  Gregory  IV.  placed  Iceland  and 
Greenland  under  the  jurisdictiou  of   Ansgar, 


SUPPRESSED  msromcAL  facts. 


Areliliisliop  of  Ilainhnrij:,  wlioni  lie  appointed 
liis  Huostulic  It'^ijato  for  the  imrtli  {Piiptd  Bull., 
Diploma  of  the  Emperor  Louis  le  Dehonnaire). 
Iceland  and  Greenland  beinoj  entirely  Catliolie 
as  early  as  1004,  the  interest  of  relij^ion  in  those 
countries  required  the  erection  of  Epi^JCopal  Sees, 
and  in  the  year  1055,  Adalbert,  Archbishop  of 
Breuien-IIaniburg — these  two  cities  then  formed 
one  Archiepiscopal  See — consecrated  Jon  Bisli- 
op  of  Skalliolt,  in  Iceland,  and  Albert  Bishop  of 
Gardar,  in  Greenland  {Adam  of  Bremen.,  Ilia- 
toria  Ecdesiastica).  Bishop  Jon,  who  was  a 
Scot,  after  a  four  years'  residence  in  Iceland, 
came  to  this  country  in  the  year  1059,  to  con- 
vert the  natives  and  administer  to  the  spiritual 
wants  of  the  Catholic  Scandinavian  population 
—  colonists  from  Denmark,  Norway,  Sweden, 
Iceland,  and  Greenland — who  from  time  to  time 
had  formed  settlements  in  what  they  called  Vin- 
land,  a  tract  of  country  described  in  old  maps  as 
extending  over  the  entire  eastern  portion  of 
Massachusetts  and  part  of  Rhode  Island,  com- 
mencing at  Cape  Ann  and  terminating  with  Nar- 
ragansett  Bay.  More,  then,  than  eight  hundred 
years  ago,  and  consequently  nearly  six  hundred 
years  before  the  Puritan  Pilgrims  set  foot  on 
Plymouth  Rock,  the  Catholic  Church  had  a'bish- 
op  there,  yes,  and  martyr,  too  {Mallet.,  Introduc- 
tion a  VHidoire  du  Dannemarc,  t.  I.,  p.  254. — 
hlandh  LandnamahoTc,  p.  396. —  Th.  Torfmus.^ 
Mistoria  Vinlandim  Antq..,  p,  ll.—Gravier^  /?. 


8 


SUPPRESSED  HISTORICAL  FACTS. 


166),  for  the  saintly  prelate  fell  a  victim  to  zeal 
and  cliurity  beneath  the  deadly  arrows  of  those 
for  whom  he  was  endeavoring  to  open  the  gates 
of  heaven. 

More  than  fifty  years  before  his  time,  in  the 
year  1003,  one  of  the  headlands  of  Ma.s>-a- 
chusetts,  near  the  present  city  of  Boston,  was 
called  the  Promontory  of  the  Cross,  from  the 
grave  of  Thorwald,  a  Catholic  explorer,  whose 
dying  reqnest,  when  ho  M'as  mortally  wounded 
by  the  Esquimaux,  was  that  his  companions 
should  bury  him  there  and  place  a  cross  at  his 
head  and  another  at  his  feet  {liafii^  AnU<iui- 
tates  Amerlcanm pp.  40,  eto.^  426,  etc. — Snorre 
Sturleson,  c.  lOS,  p.  312. — Th.  Toi'fmus^  Hist. 
Vinl.  Antiq.,p.  10. — Gravier^  p.  63/  Gravler, 
p.  106. — Beaiivois,  p.  31. — Torfmus.,  p.  28).  The 
first  birth  from  Catholic  parents,  and  therefore 
the  first  baptism  in  America,  was  that  of  Snorre, 
who  was  born  in  1009,  of  Thorfinn  and  Gudrida, 
on  the  western  shore  of  Mt.  Hope  Bay,  in  Bris- 
tol County,  Rhode  Island.  Plis  family  returned 
to  Iceland,  and  thence,  after  the  death  of  her 
husband  and  the  marriage  of  her  son,  Gudrida 
went  on  a  pilgrimage  to  Rome  and  gladdened 
the  heart  of  the  Holy  Father  with  news  from 
his  children  in  the  New  World.  Thus  you  per- 
ceive that  the  first  Catholic  mother  of  America 
M'as  the  first  pilgrim  from  the  western  shore  to  the 
shrine  of  St.  Peter  and  the  court  of  the  Vatican 
— and  this  more  than  eight  hundred  years  ago  ! 


8UPPRE33ED  HISTORICAL  FACTS. 


A  historian,  who  records  the  fact,  writes : 
"  Rome  lent  a  ready  ear  to  accounts  of  geo- 
graphical discoveries,  and  collected  facts  and  nar- 
ratives. Every  discovery  seemed  an  extension  of 
Papal  dominion  and  a  new  field  for  the  preaching 
of  the  gospel."  I  might  disappoint  your  laudable 
curiosity,  were  I  not  to  add  that  this  pious  wo- 
man returned  to  Iceland  and  ended  her  days  as  a 
nun  in  a  Benedictine  convent  built  by  her  son, 
and  that  son  had  among  his  grand-children  three 
who  were  bishops  of  Iceland. 

The  martyr  Jon  was  not  the  only  bishop 
who  visited  what  is  now  Khode  Island.  In  the 
year  1121,  Erick,  Bishop  of  Gardar,  Greenland, 
went  to  Yinland,  and,  like  Bishop  Jon,  ended 
his  life  in  this  country  {RemheglaVy  p.  320. — 
Rafn^  Ant.  Am.f  p.  261. — Dec.  de  VAm.,  p.  60. 
— Beavvois,  p.  66. — Th.  Torfceus,  Yin.  An.,  p. 
71).  What,  more  than  two  centuries  ago,  people 
called  the  old  stone  mill  at  Newport,  admitted 
by  all  to  be  a  work  of  Norsemen,  antiquaries 
say  was  erected  about  the  time  of  Bishop  Erick, 
and  was  a  baptistery,  built  after  the  style  of 
many  of  the  baptisteries  of  the  middle  ages. 
{Similar  haptisteries  ha/oe  been  discovered  m 
Greenland  at  Igalikko,  Kdkortok,  amd  Iglor- 
8oit.)  As  the  Catholic  colonies  were  for  centu- 
ries dependent  on  the  bishops  of  Greenland  and 
Iceland,  it  may  be  well  to  remark  that  these 
bishops  were,  by  order  of  Pope  Gregory  IV.,  in 
834,  suffragans  of  the  Archbishop  of  Hamburg  j 


Ml 


1 


|i| 


.J' 


•lO         iStlP.^'kEl^SlSt)  mSTORIOAL  FACTS. 

ffiOTln  1099  they  l3ecame  snffnif^atis  of  the 
Archbisliop  of  Lund,  by  order  of  Pope  Urban 
II.;  and  finally  in  1154  ';hey  became  suffragans 
of  the  Archbishop  of  Drontheim  in  Norway,  by 
order  of  Pope  Anastasius  IV.;  and  history  testi- 
fies tliat  from  time  to  time  they  crossed  the 
ocean  to  attend  the  provincial  councils  held  in 
those  metropolitan  cities  {Moosm,ueller).  In 
1276  the  crusades  were  preaf',hed  in  America 
{M.  P.  Riant,  Exped.  etjpcler  Scandin.,  j).  304), 
and  Peter-pence  were  collected  here  and  sent  to 
Rome  by  order  of  Pope  John  XXL,  and  subse- 
quently by  order  of  In's  successors,  Nicholas  III. 
and  Martlii  V.  {liicmt,  p.  365. —  Th.  Torfmus., 
Hist.  Grand.,  p.  25. — Kohl, p.  94. — Miiltc-Brun, 
liv.  18,  t.  \,p.  289).  Catholicity,  in  a  word,  was 
in  a  flourishing  condition  in  Iceland  and  Green- 
land, and  we  may  infer  in  Yinland,  till  the  mid- 
dle of  the  sixteenth  century,  when  the  northern 
nations,  having  to  a  great  degree  apostatized  from 
the  faith.  King  Christian,  of  Denmark,  in  1540, 
sent  preachers  to  Danish  America  to  substitute  Lu- 
theranism  for  the  old  faith,  a  substitution  which 
■  was  inaugurated  by  dragging  off  one  of  the 
bishops  of  Iceland,  Augmond  of  Skalholt,  to  a 
prison  in  Denmark^  and  beheading  the  other, 
Jon  Arleson  of  llorlum,  in  1551 ;  the  people 
meanwhile  protesting  against  the  change  of  re- 
ligion with  the  declaration  that  it  beloT>ged  not 
to  the  King  of  Denmark,  but  to  the  Roman  Pon- 
tiff, to  teach  them  what  they  s^iould  believe,     - 


SUPPRESSED  HISTORICAL  FACTS. 


11 


This  adhesion  to  the  teachini^  of  the  Roman 
See  characterized  the  Greenlanaers  also,  as  Pope 
Nicholas  V.  testifies  in  a  letter  written  in  144F, 
in  which  he  states  that  they  had  then  been  Catho- 
lics for  nearly  six  hundred  years.  The  last  Bishop 
of  Gardar  was  Vincent,  who  was  consecrated  in 
1337 — forty-five  years,  as  you  perceive,  after  the 
discovery  of  America  by  Columbus,  and  nearly 
five  hundred  years  after  the  erection  of  the  See. 
We  may  reasonably  conclude  that  for  sevei-al 
years  the  divine  sacrifice  of  the  mass,  wit^i  its 
inseparable  thanksgiving,  was  simultaneously 
o^ered  in  Vinland  by  the  descendants  of  the 
Norsemen,  and  on  the  shores  of  Florida  and  in 
the  island3  off  the  southern  coast  by  the  mission- 
aries who  followed  in  the  track  of  Columbus. 
Filially,  deprived  of  their  pastors,  the  scattered 
flock  gradually  lost  their  faith,  and  now  nothing 
remains  to  tell  of  the  Christianity  of  Vinland 
but  the  ancient  documents  from  which  I  have 
quoted,  and  the  remains  of  the  stone  baptistery  at 
Newport,  Hiiode  Island,  whioh  some  of  you,  no 
doubt,  have  seen. 

If  I  have  dwelt  long  upon  the  Catholic  his- 
tory of  the  Norsemen  in  what  are  now  the  New 
England  States,  it  was  because  I  supposed  the 
subject  would  be  equally  novel  and  interesting. 
Nor  can  I  leave  it  without  stating  that  the  form 
of  government  in  Iceland,  Greenland  and  Vin^ 
land  was  republican  (Gravier,  jp2).  27,  37)  from 
the  foundation  of  the  respective  colonies  till  the 


I 


||        SVPPHESSED  HISTORICAL  FACTS. 

year  1261,  M-hen  they  became  dependencies  of 
the  Crown  of  JN'orway.  There  was,  therefore, 
a  little  Catholic  republic  on  tliis  continent  seven 
Imndred,  perhaps  eight  hundred  years  ago. 

37ie  American  Catholic  Quarterly  Review,  April,  1888. 
America  Discovered  a7id  Christ^'  dzed  by  the  North- 
men, by  Richard  H.  Clarke. 

The    Northmen,    wandering     fragments    ol 

Asiatic  tribes,  after  traversing  Europe,  found  a 

home  and  founded  a  nation  in  Norway,  only  when 

the    sea  arrested    their    progress.     He  "%    they 

I  the 


:i:i 


achieved  a  permanent  conquest  and 
mother  country',  from  whose  sea-indented  bhores 
proceeded  so  many  expeditions  pregnant  with 
the  fate  of  nations.  ...  In  860,  Naddod, 
a  Norwegian  pirate,  on  his  voyage  to  the  Fe- 
roes,  was  carried  far  out  of  his  course  by  a 
tempest,  and  this  accident  led  to  his  discovery  of 
Iceland,  the  "  Ultima  Thule  "  of  the  ancients. 
This  ice-clad  island  became  a  colony  of  the 
mother  country.  About  the  year  900  Rollo 
made  the  conquest  of  Normandy.  In  1060  w. 
find  a  Norman  prince  established  in  Apulia,  iu 
1066  William  the  Conqueror  becomes  the  master 
and  king  of  England,  and  founds  the  present 
dynasty  of  Great  Britain.  It  wmII  thus  be  seen 
that  the  Northmen  were  at  the  height  of  tlieir 
power  and  activity  wlicn  they  discovered  and 
colonized  portions  of  the  western  continent  n 
the  tenth  century.  .  .  .  The  learned  geo^:T 
phers  and  skillful  critics,  who  have  reviewed 


SUPPRESSED  HISTORICAL  FACTS. 


13 


4 


all  these  circumstances,  have  decided  that  the 
first  land  discovered  was  Nantucket,  one  de»rreo 
south  of  Boston,  the  second  Nova  Scotia,  the 
tliird  Newfoundland.     .     .     .     The  observations 
made  of  the  country  and  climate  accord  with 
wonderful    accuracy  in   locating   Vinland   the 
Good,  or  the  Northmen,  in  the  region  near  New- 
port, Rhode  Island.     .     .     .     This  expedition  of 
Leif  Erikson  was  regarded  as  the  most  fortunate 
of  all,  for  he  had  discovered  Vinland  the  Good, 
had  rescued  five  of  his  countrymen  from  death  at 
sea,  and  had  introduced  Christianity  into  Green- 
land.    The  ecclesiastics  who  accompanied  the  ex- 
pedition were  the  first  Oiiristian  priests  in  that 
early  age  that  visited  America.     They  afterward 
became  the  founders  of  the  church  of  Greenland, 
which  flourished  for  several  centuries.     The  re- 
mains of  the  temples  are  now  visited  by  adven- 
turous tourists,  and  are  familiar  to  the  Moravian 
missionaries  of  Greenland.     Leif  Erikson    was 
thus  the  first  discoverer  of  our  country.     .     .     . 
It  would  certainly  be  an  interesting  field  of  in- 
quiry to  investigate   the   question   of   whether 
Columbus  had  any  knowledge  of  the  Norse  dis- 
coveries in  the  Western  hemisphere,  and  to  what 
extent.     There  are  a  number  of  circumstances 
strongly  tending  to  show  that  Columbus  knew 
something  of  these  events.     His  long  and  thor- 
ough study  of  the  subject  in  all  its  aspects  must 
have  guided  his  mind  to  this  information.     The 
absolute  certainty  he  professed  to  have  that  he 


14 


SUPPRESSED  HISTORICAL  FACTS. 


could  discover  kiid  in  the  West  could  not  have 
rested  upon  theory  alone;  it  must  have  been 
based  upon  information  of  facts  also.  He  him- 
self says  that  he  based  his  certainty  upon  the  au- 
thority of  learned  writers.  .  .  .  The  visit 
of  Columbus  to  Iceland,  in  February,  1477, 
brought  him  in  more  immediate  contact  with  the 
traditions  and  written  accounts  in  relation  to  the 
Korse  discoveries  in  the  Western  continent.  He 
is  believed  to  have  conversed  with  the  bishop  and 
Jier  learned  men  of  Iceland,  and  as  his  visit  there 
was  fifteen  years  before  he  discovered  America, 
and  only  one  hundred  and  thirty  years  after  the 
last  Norse  expedition  to  the  lands  in  the  West- 
ern ocean,  he  must  have  met  Icelanders  whose 
grandfathers  lived  in  the  time  of  that  expedi- 
tion, and  perhaps  were  membei*s  of  it.  It  is  un- 
likely that  Columbus  could  have  been  so  active 
in  his  researches  for  geographical  and  nautical 
information  as  all  his  biographers  represent,  and 
yet  have  been  in  the  midst  of  so  much  information 
on  these  subjects  without  coming  in  contact  with 
it.  .  .  .  Rome  was  then,  as  she  has  been 
ever  since,  alive  to  geographical  discoveries,  as 
affording  the  channel  for  conveying  the  faitli 
to  heathen  peoples.  Rome  was  represented  in 
the  Western  hemisphere  by  a  succession  of 
seventeen  bishops,  and  one  of  them,  Bishop  Eric 
Upsi,  became  the  apostle  of  Y inland  in  the 
twelfth  century,  a  fact  M'hich  indicates  a  per- 
manent settlement  of  Northmen  in  Rhode  Isl- 


SUPPRESSED  HISTORICAL  FACTS. 


IS 


and.  .  .  .  It  is  believed  tliat  tlie  traditions 
of  these  expeditions  of  the  Northmen  to  distant 
lands  beyond  the  ocean  reached  the  eager  ears  of 
Columbus ;  that  he  not  only  saw  and  read  ac- 
counts of  them  at  Rome ;  but,  on  the  occasion 
of  his  voyage  to  Iceland  in  the  spring  of  1477, 
heard  the  legends  of  Vinland  from  Norse 
tongues,  and  learned  them  more  minutely  from 
the  monastic  manuscripts  preserved  in  the  an- 
cient convents.  Columbus  never  divulged  to  the 
public  the  extent  of  his  knowledge  of  facts  point- 
ing to  lands  in  the  Western  ocean.  At  Rome 
also  Columbus  must  have  heard  of  the  Norse 
expeditions  to  Greenland  and  Vinland.  .  .  . 
It  is  also  argued  that,  as  Pope  Paschal  II.,  in 
the  year  1121,  appointed  Eric  Upsi  bishop  of 
Garda,  in  Greenland,  and  the  bishop  visited 
Vinland  as  part  of  his  spiritual  domain,  Colum- 
bus, in  search  of  such  knowledge,  must  have 
found  it  where  it  was  most  accessible.  There  is 
also  some  ground  for  believing,  though  the  fact 
is  not  established,  that  a  map  of  Vinland  was 
preserved  in  the  Vatican,  and  that  a  copy  of  it 
was  furnished  to  the  Pinsons.  Facts  such  as 
these  must  have  formed  a  considerable  part  of 
the  knowledge  acquired  by  Columbus  in  his 
many  years  of  study.  .  .  .  Leo  XIII.  has 
now  opened  to  historical  students  the  treasures  of 
the  Vatican  ;  may  we  not  now  hope  to  solve  this 
interestitig  question  ?  May  we  not  hope  to  re- 
cover the  history  of  the  church  of  Greenland  and 


11 


ji 


16 


SUPPRESSED  HISTORICAL  FACTS. 


Yinland,  and  of  the  seventeen  bishops,  and  of 
the  numerous  missionaries  who  first  carried  the 
cross  to  the  West  ? 

Father  Bodfiah'a  Paper,  Read  before  the  Bostonian 
Society  on  the  Discovery  of  America  by  the  North- 
men. From  the  Report  in  the  Boston  Journal, 
Febtmry  9th,  1887. 

The  Catholic  evidence  from  church  history 
was  cited,  which  said  that  missionaries  accom- 
panied Leif  on  his  expedition.  Erik  was  the 
first  Catholic  bishop  of  America,  a  fact  worthy 
of  historical  belief,  and  he  sent  word  to  Rome. 
Afterward  Columbus  obtained  this  knowledge  at 
Rome,  and  inspired  his  sailors  with  accounts  of 
maps  of  the  places  in  the  New  World  visited  by 
the  Northmen. 

F^m  the  Report  of  the  Same  in  the  Daily  Advertiser, 
Fdmiary  9th,  ISSl. 

The  essayist  quoted,  as  corroborative  author- 
ity, the  account  ^iven  in  standard  history  of  the 
Catholic  Church,  of  the  establishment  of  a  bish- 
opric in  Greenland  in  1121  a.d.,  and  he  added 
the  interesting  suggestion  that,  as  it  is  the  duty 
of  a  bishop  so  placed  at  a  distance  to  report 
from  time  to  time  to  the  Pope,  not  only  on  ec- 
clesiastical matters,  but  of  the  geography  of  the 
country  and  character  on  the  people,  it  is  prob- 
able that  Columbus  had  the  benefit  of  the  knowl- 
edge possessed  at  Rome  thus  derived.  It  is,  he 
said,  stated  in  different  biographies  of  Columbus 
that,  when  the  voyage  was  first  proposed  by 


SUPPRESSED  HISTORICAL  FACTS. 


17 


him,  he  found  difficulty  in  getting  Spanish  sail- 
ors to  agree  to  go  with  him  in  so  doubtful  an 
undertaking.  After  Columbus  returned  from  a 
visit  to  Rome,  with  information  there  obtained, 
these  sailors,  or  enough  of  them,  appear  to  have 
had  their  doubts  or  fears  removed,  and  no  diffi- 
culty in  enlistment  was  experienced. 


History  of  the  Catholic  Missions  among  the  Indian 
Tribes  of  the  United  States.    John  Qilmary  Shea. 

The  discovery  of  America,  like  every  other 
event  in  the  history  of  the  world,  had,  in  the 
designs  of  God,  the  great  object  of  the  salvation 
of  mankind.  Iceland  was  first  discovered  by 
Christian  missionaries  from  Ireland,  and  though 
the  pagan  Northmen  soon  colonized  the  island 
and  the  shores  of  Greenland,  it  was  only  at  the 
moment  when  they  were  about  to  renounce 
Woden  for  Christ.  Greenland  was  scarcely 
planted  when  missionaries  arrived  to  win  the 
Scandinavian  to  the  faith.  From  the  time  of 
their  conversion  these  colonies  became  centres  of 
Christianity,  and  hardy  missionaries  ventured 
down  to  the  coast  of  our  republic  to  convert  the 
pagan  colonists  and  the  surrounding  natives. 
Soon  after  the  settlement  of  Greenland  by  Eric 
the  Red,  his  son  Leif  visited  Norway,  and  was 
induced  by  St.  Olaus,  then  king  of  that  country, 
to  embrace  the  true  faith.  Returning  to  Green- 
land in  1000,  Leif  bore  with  him  priests  to  con- 
vert the  colonists,  and  in  a  short  time  most  of 


tit       SUPPRESSED  HISTORICAL  FACTS. 


the  Northmen  in  America  embraced  Christian- 
ity. Churches  and  convents  arose  in  different 
parts,  rivalling  those  of  Iceland  in  piety  and 
learning.  Thorwald,  Thorstein,  and  subsequently 
Thorfinn,  of  Irish  origin,  visited  tliis  place,  and  a 
settlement  was  gradually  formed.  As  yet  all 
were  not  Christians  ;  some  still  adored  Thor  and 
Woden,  and  missionaries  left  Greenland  to  es- 
tablish religion  in  Vinland.  Of  these  missionaries 
the  most  celebrated  was  Erik,  who  arrived  in 
Greenland,  and,  after  laboring  a  few  years,  pro- 
ceeded to  Vinland.  Spending  some  years  here, 
lie  returned  to  Iceland  in  1120,  and  sailed  to 
Europe  to  induce  the  establishment  of  a  bishop- 
ric and  a  proper  organization  of  the  Church. 
Deeming  Erik  the  most  suitable  person,  the 
Scandinavian  bishops  selected  him  to  found  the 
first  American  see,  and  the  missionary  was  con- 
secrated at  Lund,  in  Denmark,  by  Archbishop 
Adzar,  in  1121.  .  .  .  After  his  consecration 
Erik  returned  to  America,  but,  still  attached  to 
his  mission,  led  a  body  of  clergy  and  colonists 
to  Vinland;  here  he  found  so  ample  a  field  for 
his  labor  that  he  resigned  his  bishopric  and 
never  returned  to  Greenland.  As  to  the  position 
of  Vinland  there  can  be  little  doubt ;  a  careful 
study  of  the  narratives  of  the  early  voyagers — 
narratives  stamped  with  the  imprint  of  truth 
— leaves  no  doubt  that  they  turned  Cape  Cod  and 
entered  the  waters  of  Narragansett  Bay. 


SUPPRESSED  HISTORICAL  FACTS. 


19 


Lives  of  the  Deceased  Bishops  of  tlie  Catholic  Church 
in  the  United  States.    Richard  H.  Clarke,  A.M. 

(Preface.)  The  Church  of  America  is  said 
even  now  to  be  in  its  infancy.  So  n>uch  is  to  be 
done.  So  vast  is  the  iield.  So  rapid  her  pres- 
ent growth.  Yet  she  possesses  an  antiquity  of  lier 
own,  traces  lier  history  back  eight  Inindred 
years,  and  links  her  origin  and  traditions  with 
the  Ages  of  Faith.  In  the  tenth  century  Chris- 
tianity was  planted  on  our  continent  by  North- 
men, and  in  the  twelfth  a  devoted  Catliolic  bish- 
op and  zealous  missionaries  blessed  the  soil  of 
our  own  country  by  their  ministry  and  by  their 
lives.  ,         , 


Erik,  Bishop  of  Garda,  First  American  Bishop,  A.D. 
1131.    {llie  same.) 

Our  soil  was  blessed  by  Chrii^tianity,  by  its 
missions,  prayers,  and  sacrifices,  as  early  as  the 
tenth  century — a  flash  of  light  and  glory  most 
effulgent,  but  transient — a  ray  of  hope  for  a 
future  Christendom.  .  .  .  Leif  returned  to 
Greenland  in  the  year  1000,  accompanied  by 
Catholic  missionaries,  who  must  have  been  im- 
bued with  the  true  apostolic  spirit,  for  it  was 
not  long  before  most  of  the  Nortlimen  in 
America  were  Christians.  The  churches  and 
convents  in  Greenland  began  to  compare  in 
piety  and  learning  with  those  of  the  mother 
country.  .  .  .  Thus  created  bishop  of  Garda, 
in  Greenland,  the  whole  of  the  Norse  colonies 
in  America  were  within  his  jurisdictiou,  includ- 


30 


SUPPRESSED  HISTORICAL  FACTS. 


ing  the  Vinland  of  our  own  country.  Ever  in- 
tent on  the  spread  of  religion  and  the  oi'^aniza- 
tion  of  tlie  churcli  of  Vinland,  as  well  as  the* 
conversion  of  the  savages  of  the  South,  he  lost 
no  time  in  visiting  the  new  colony  on  the  shores 
of  Narragansett  Bay,  accompanied  by  a  ban<l  of 
zealous  missionaries  who  had  volunteered  for 
that  service,  and  by  a  colony  of  settlers. 


History  of  the  Roman  Catholic  Church  in  the  United 
States.    Henry  De  Courcy  and  John  Oilmary  Shea. 

The  missionary  spirit  is  inherent  in  the  Catho- 
lic Church,  and  it  dates  from  the  moment  when 
our  Lord  said  to  His  apostles,  "  Go  and  teach  all 
nations."  Before  St.  Paul  had  left  Asia  Minor, 
missionaries  had  already  penetrated  to  Italy  and 
Spain,  and  from  their  day  to  our  own,  each  suc- 
ceeding age  has  produced  her  heroes,  devoting 
their  lives  to  the  greatest  of  human  enterprises — 
the  conversion  of  souls.  When  the  still  pagan 
Northmen  discovered  Iceland,  in  the  eighth  cen- 
tury of  our  present  era,  they  found  on  the  shore 
crosses,  bells,  and  sacred  vessels  of  Irish  work- 
manship. The  island  had  therefore  been  visited 
by  Catholic  missionaries,  and  the  Irish  clergy 
may  with  justice  lay  claim  to  the  discovery  of 
the  New  World. 

The  Northmen,  after  founding  a  colony  in 
Iceland,  pushed  their  discovery  westward,  and 
soon  discove  *^d  a  part  of  the  Western  continent, 
to  which,  from  the  agreeable  verdure  with  which 


SUPPRESSED  HISTORICAL  FACTS. 


21 


it  was  covered,  tliey  gave  the  name  of  Green- 
land. When  these  hardy  explorers  returned  to 
Norway,  they  found  the  idols  of  Scandinavia 
hurled  to  the  dust.  The  king  had  embraced  the 
true  faith,  and  the  wliole  people  had  renounced 
paganism.  A  missionary  set  sail  in  the  first 
vessel  that  steered  towards  the  new-found  land, 
and  erelong  the  little  colony  was  Catholic.  Ice- 
land and  Greenland  soon  had  their  churches, 
their  convents,  their  bishops,  their  colleges,  thel*' 
libraries,  their  apostolic  men.  The  explorers 
Beorn  and  Leif  having  coasted  southerly  along 
the  Atlantic  shore,  towards  the  bays  where  the 
countless  spires  of  Boston  and  New  York  now 
tower,  missionaries  immediately  offered  to  go 
and  preach  the  Gospel  to  the  savage  nations  of 
the  South  ;  and  it  is  certain  that  in  1120  Bishop 
Eric  visited  in  person  Vinland,  or  the  land  of 
vines.  The  colonies  of  tlie  Northmen  on  the 
west  coast  of  Greenland  continued  to  flourish 
until  1406,  when  the  seventeenth  and  last 
bishop  of  Garda  was  sent  from  Norway ;  those 
on  the  eastern  coast  subsisted  till  1540,  when 
they  were  destroyed  by  a  pliysical  revolution 
which  accumulated  the  ice  in  that  zone  from  the 
GOtli  dcifrue  of  latitude.  Thus  a  focus  of  Cliris- 
tianity  not  only  existed  in  Greenland,  but  from 
it  rays  of  faith  niomontarily  illumined  part  of 
the  territory  now  embraced  in  the  United  States, 
to  leave  it  sunk  in  darkness  for  some  centuries 
more.  < 


dd 


SUPPRESSED  HISTORICAL  FACTS. 


Extract  from  a  letter  to  Miss  Marte  A .  Brown  from 
Father  P.  Oswald  Moosiaueller,  the  revtrend  superior 
of  St.  Benedict's  Industrial  School  at  Skidaioay 

;:w  Island,  Savannah,  dated  Sept.  3d,  1887. 

First  of  all,  I  should  mention  that  I  collected 
the  materials  for  my  book  in  Rome  about  twenty 
years  ago.  Although  the  best  libraries  of  the 
past — i.e.,  the  Bibliotheca  Angelica,  in  cliarge  of 
the  Augustinians,  and  the  Bibliotheca  Cassana- 
thense,  at  the  Minerva,  in  charge  of  the  Domini- 
cans— have  since  been  broken  up  and  dispersed, 
yet  other  sources  of  the  greatest  value  for  a 
historian  have  been  made  accessible  of  late — viz., 
the  archives  of  the  Vatican,  which  at  my  time 
were  in  charge  of  the  aged  Oratorian,  Dr.  Thei- 
ner,  as  Custodi.  There  is  the  place  liere  you 
can  procure  authentical  data  and  th  ^t  inter- 
esting documents  concerning  the  bishops  of  Ice- 
land and  Greenland. 


Europeans  in  America  before  Columbus.    Father   P. 
Oswald  Moosmueller. 

In  the  archives  of  Iceland  are  found  authentic 
records  which  testify  that  Columbus  arrived  from 
England  in  a  Bristol  merchant-ship,  and  landed 
in  the  harbor  of  Hvalf  jardareyri,  in  the  southern 
part  of  Iceland,  in  February  of  the  year  1477. 
This  harbor  used  at  that  time  to  be  frequently 
visited  by  foreign  traders,  especially  from  Eng- 
land and  Ireland.  Columbus  himself  says  that 
in  the  before-named  year  the  sea  that  washes 
lound  the  island  (which  nearly  approaches  Eng- 


SUPPRESSED  mSTORlOAL  PACTS. 


38 


land  in  size)  was  quite  free  from  ice.  Voyaejes 
to  Iceland  at  this  time  of  the  year  are  not  alto- 
gether unusual,  but  the  entire  absence  of  snow 
is  very  rare.  But  it  is  corroborated  by  the  public 
records  of  Iceland  that  this  actually  occurred  in 
the  months  of  February  and  March,  in  the  year 
1477.  In  this  way  a  remarkable  coincidence 
occurred.  '  ""  "  ■  '  "■ '  '  '*  '*'  <-  ;  •'  ■ 
At  that  time  one  of  the  most  prominent 
personages  among  the  clergy  of  Iceland  was  the 
Benedictine  Magnus,  son  of  Egolf,  who  in  tlie 
year  1470  was  nominated  abbot  of  the  monastery 
of  Helgafell.  Ilelgafell  might,  in  respect  to  the 
earliest  voyages  of  discovery  of  the  Icelanders 
to  America,  be  called  classic  ground,  for  out  of 
this  very  neighborhood  had  set  forth  the  first 
discoverers  and  colonists  of  Greenland  and  other 
parts  of  America.    ... 


'■{ ./. 


'  In  the  year  1475  Magnus,  abbot  of  the  Bene- 
dictine monastery  at  Helgafell,  was  consecrated 
bishop  of  Skalholt  by  Archbishop  Gauto,  of 
Drontheim.  In  the  winter  of  the  year  1477  it 
now  happened  that  Bishop  Magnus  visited  the 
churches  of  his  diocese  on  the  peninsula  of 
Hvalf  jardareyri,  at  the  very  time  when  Chris- 
topher Columbus  landed  in  the  haven  of  the 
same  name.  The  bishop  met  with  Columbus, 
and  they  conversed  in  the  Latin  language.  Co- 
lumbus inquired  concerning  the  Western  lands 
(as  Rafn,  in  the  preface  to  the    "  Antiquitatee 


24        SUPPRESSED  HISTORICAL  FACTS. 


Americanae,"  p.  xxiv.,  note  1,  says :  ".  .  .  to 
him,  inquiring  concerning  Western  lands  ").     , , 

But  what  information  thereupon,  and,  gener- 
ally, what  answer  Bishop  Magnus  gave  Colum- 
bus remains  sdll  a  matter  of  hypothesis,  upon 
which  nothing  hae  yet  been  found  in  authentic 
writings.  To  be  sure,  there  are  several  grounds 
that  permit  us  to  accept  the  theory  that  Bishop 
Magnus  related  to  Columbus  all  about  the  well- 
known  discoveries  of  the  Western  lands  by  the 
Icelanders,  since  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  the 
bishop  himself  had  adequate  knowledge  of  these 
discoveries,  for  they  D'^'t  only  formed  a  part  of 
the  history  of  his  fatherland,  but  also  balonged 
to  the  oral  traditions  of  the  inhabitants  of  Helga- 
fell,  and,  moreover,  were  preserved  in  the  written 
chronicles  of  the  monastery  of  which  }ie  had  been 
abbot.    ... 

It  would  be  superfluous  hereon  once  more  to 
point  out  that  the  knowledge  of  the  existence  of 
Western  lands,  and  consequently  of  America, 
was  in  no  wise  confined  to  Iceland. 

For  the  elucidation  of  these  voyages  to  un- 
known lands  in  those  remote  times  there  is  placed 
at  the  disposal  of  the  historian  a  proportionately 
rich  source  of  material.  A  series  of  parchment 
manuscripts  remains  extant  in  which  more  or  less 
mention  of  America  occurs,  evidently  under  the 
names  used  by  the  Icelanders.  Also  a  quantity 
o^  paper  manuscripts,  wiiicli,  however,  mostly 
contain  only  accounts  from  old  parchment  docu- 


SUPPRESSED  HISTORICAL  FACTS. 


35 


ments  at  present  lost,  should  not  remain  unre- 
garded 


f  ■■ 


•  The  Dublin  Reoiew,  November,  IMl.  ' 
But  there  were  other  races  or  tribes  of  the 
Gomerites,  Cimbrians,  or  Atlantians  still  more 
successful,  in  subsequent  periods,  in  their  discov- 
eries of  the  Atlantic  islands  and  America.  We 
allude  to  the  Northmen,  as  they  were  called, 
scattered  along  the  north  wastern  coast  of  Europe. 
These  hardy,  resolute,  and  unflinching  adventu- 
rers, who  relied  on  the  traditions  of  their  an- 
cestors respecting  the  Atlantic  territories,  boldly 
put  to  sea  in  quest  of  the  terra  incognito.  Sev- 
eral of  their  most  heroic  chiefs  would  seem  to 
have  made  these  desperate  voyages  of  discovery, 
and  indubitable  records  exist  of  their  successful 
result.  Ostelius  stated  these  facts  in  the  year 
1570,  and  early  in  the  seventeenth  century  Myl 
and  Hugo  Grotius  illustrated  this  theory.  After 
showing  that  successive  races  had  found  their 
way  to  America  from  several  countries  of  tlie 
Old  World,  they  proceeded  to  prove  that  the 
Northmen  were  entitled  to  especial  credit  for 
their  Atlantic  discoveries.  The  opinion  of 
Grotius  (as  his  biographer  Burigni  remarks)  is 
that  North  America  was  peopled  by  persons  from 
Norway,  from  whence  they  passed  into  Iceland, 
afterwards  into  Greenland,  from  thence  to  Fries, 
land,  then  to  Estoteland,  a  part  of  the  American 
contineut  to  which  the  fishere  of  Frieslaud  had 


M 


BUPPRESSED  HISTORICAL  FACTS. 


penetrated  two  centuries  before  the  Spaniards  had 
disco  vered  the  New  World.  He  pretends  that  the 
names  of  those  countries  end  with  the  same  syl- 
lables as  those  of  the  Norwegians;  that  the 
Mexicans  and  their  neighbors  assured  the  Span- 
iards  that  they  came  from  the  North;  that 
there  are  many  words  in  the  American  lan- 
guages which  have  a  relation  to  the  German 
and  Norwegian,  and  that  the  Americans  still 
preserve  the  customs  of  the  country  from  which 
they  originally  sprang.  .  .  .  This  theory 
respecting  the  American  discoveries  of  the 
Northmen,  or  Norsemen,  was  confirmed  and 
verified  by  many  subsequent  writers,  and  was 
pretty  well  established  during  the  eighteenth 
century.  .  .  .  We  hope  we  have  now  made 
our  point — namely,  the  high  probability  of  those 
successive  discoveries  of  America  reported  in  the 
pages  of  history.  We  have  not  attempted  to 
evince  this  point  by  any  original  arguments, 
which  might  appear  as  dreams  of  imagination, 
but  by  the  concentration,  accumulation,  and  or- 
derly arrangement  of  the  whole  existing  evi- 
dence bearing  on  the  topic.  The  strength  of  the 
reasoning  is  essentially  cumulative;  it  results 
from  the  incorporation  of  the  disjecta  ruemhra 
v&ritatis.  Many  ancient  testimonies  which, 
taken  separately,  might  want  weight  and  im- 
pressiveness,  thus  joined  together  in  a  consistent 
mass  become  almost  invincible.  The  whole  re- 
sult of  probability  redounds  to  the  confirmation 


SUPPRESSED  HISTORICAL  FACTS. 


27 


of  each  particular  count  of  the  plea,  and  moral 
conviction  is  enhanced  by  a  law  of  increments 
similar  to  that  of  geometrical  progressions.  .  .  . 
Now  the  main  part  of  this  evidence,  so  con- 
sistent, yet  so  diversified,  was  extant  in  the  age 
of  Columbus,  a  most  keen  and  scrutinizing  in- 
quirer into  geographical  questions.  Indeed,  we 
have  reason  to  believe  that  some  evidences  of 
American  discoveries  existed  in  that  day,  among 
his  fellow-countrymen,  which  are  now  lost. 
What  would  be  the  natural  result  on  such  a 
mind  but  a  fixed  conviction,  not  merely  derived 
a  priori  from  the  physical  principles  of  our 
planet,  but  likewise  a  posteriori  from  the  consent 
of  historical  evidences,  of  the  existence  of 
America  ? 


♦ 


k.. 


